On (yet) another wintry, windswept evening, a doughty team of GoodGymers cruised by trainer or tyre to Brighton's Community Kitchen, a regular on the GoodGym roster, and a key community venue for the Brighton and Hove Community Partnership, the umbrella organisation that also oversees another GoodGym staple task venue Wilding Waterhall, among other initiatives.

The gang were welcomed as usual by Jo, the manager at Community Kitchen, with an efficient checklist of tasks including window washing, pan sloshing and oven scrubbing, ticked off with gusto by the team to the accompaniment of Jo's playlist of upbeat pop classics, including Madonna's 80s Latin-inspired reverie La Isla Bonita.

Offering an oasis of the culinary kind, the Community Kitchen serves up a menu of enticing cookery classes for all, led by local top chefs, with sessions on Goa curries, macarons, and steaks, sauces and stocks on the near horizon. It also delivers a range of community cooking workshops at low/no cost to improve well-being and confidence for people on low incomes, those living with dementia and those with physical/mental health conditions, empowering disadvantaged groups with cooking skills while providing advice on creating money-savvy nutritious meal plans.

The Community Kitchen is also available as a community venue to hire, which GoodGym Brighton made exuberant use of for its most recent Christmas bash, which featured rounds of tricky quizzing and a flotilla of pizzas. As this task fell on Shrove Tuesday, floury treats of a different kind were flipped at the follow-up social, as a contingent energised by Pippa's pancake-themed HIIT session wolfed down stacks at the nearby venue Hope and Ruin, dowsed in maple syrup and ice cream.

A great session to welcome Sam on his first go with GoodGym Brighton!

16 Goodgymmers made the short jog over to Brighton Community Kitchen on Queens Road for our regular clean-up mission. We welcomed new Goodgymmer Charli, who has recently made the big move from Worthing over to Brighton, for her first task.

The Brighton Community Kitchen does vital work in the community to teach valuable cooking skills to those who might otherwise might not have access. Recently they have been working with the Marcus Rashford-backed project to provide meals over the holidays to children who are eligible for free school dinners. They have hosted classes for both the children and their parents to impart practical day-to-day cooking skills.

We were excited to see that the Kitchen has recently been upgraded with new sinks and a Food Dehydrator. The dehydrator particularly allows them to preserve vegetables that wouldn't otherwise by used, store them and later use them as ingredients. There was a big batch of Tomatoes, Onions and Carrots in the dehyradator during our clean.

Jo greeted us with her usual enthusiasm and gratitude, along with her famous todo list on the wall. This time we cleaned all the windows both inside and out, transformed the drawers from chaos to order, gave all the stools and work surfaces a good cleandown, scrubbed the ovens and of course sorted the cheese graters! Our extra large turnout meant we were able to knock-off all the tasks in no time.

With our tasks finished and everything ticked off of Jo's list we sauntered off into the summer night back to our own (slightly less sparkly clean) kitchens.

This week we welcomed back Liam from an incredible hiatus in Central America! But sadly we also said goodbye to Pippa, who has become such a big part of the GoodGym Brighton community recently but is heading back to London. I hope the London Goodgyms know how lucky they are to have her.

After some hellos by the statue we headed up to community kitchen- a favourite task of ours where we are always greeted by the ever organised owner. The task started with a brief impromptu rundown on the do's and don'ts of using induction hobs: no one with a pace maker is allowed with arms length of one, and don't drop salt on them - though many of us were dubious about this one!

We also found learned that the kitchen has recently had their funding stopped for their regular dementia cookery group, which had been providing valuable community and structure for people living with dementia. The team have been working hard to source extra funding from various places, and they also have a just giving page, in case anyone would like to support the initiative: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/dementia-food-project

We then divided up the list of tasks between everyone and set about cleaning windows, chairs, stools and cupboards, alongside tidying drawers of kitchen implements. The list seems to get bigger every time we were are there...but we always manage to get through. By the end of the night we were celebrating every task satisfyingly ticked off!

After the task we said our farewells to Pippa, who will hopefully be back for plenty of visits in the future, before all heading our separate ways.

On a personal note, tonight was my 250th good deed with Goodgym Brighton, and one of the best things has been all the lovely people I've met through GoodGym over the years. So whilst its always sad to say goodbye to people I feel very lucky to have had the chance to get to know them. So thanks for being such a lovely group of people to run with!

On a chilly February evening eight GoodGymmers gathered at one of our frequent mission venues - The Brighton Community Kitchen. Four of us jogged from our meeting place at the Old Steine, whilst others met us there - all of us ready for some cleaning and tidying action!

As usual our host Jo had prepped and assigned us with our tasks including deep cleaning the ovens, washing down the chairs, walls and skirting boards - and of course the popular task of organising the cupboards and cooking equipment!

With a nostalgic 00s pop soundtrack to keep us motivated, we smashed through our jobs and the kitchen was looking fresh and clean ready for a busy half-term week of cooking classes for kids.

WHAT's ON NEXT at GoodGym Brighton?
Plenty to amuse you to join us soon.

EVERYBODY is welcome!

On a cold November night 13 intrepid GoodGym-ers made the short run over to the Brighton Community Kitchen to give it a good clean and a freshen up. We were joined on the task by first-timers Steve and Nicole!

Upon arrival, Jo from the kitchen explained to us the mission of the kitchen (part of the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership) to offer practical cookery skills and nutrition education to people facing food insecurity with their community cooking classes. The classes also help foster a community spirit, tackle social isolation and promote mental health.

With the help of one of Jo's famous checklists we split into groups to tackle sorting out the plastic bowls (Russian Doll-style), ordering plates, chopping boards and cutlery, giving all the stools and chairs a thorough clean, giving the ovens a deep clean and squeegeeing the outside windowsills.

Although ostensibly an altruistic mission, some GoodGym-ers got immense satisfaction from ensuring that everything was in its proper, ordered, place in the kitchen (cough, cough, Jane).

Once we'd got through all of that Jo thanked us and said that although it seems like a small thing to do these tasks, it makes a huge difference to the her as they are things that she just doesn't find time to do.

We said goodbye to Jo with a promise to return early next year and headed-off to the nearby Basketmakers Arms for a pie-and-pint social which was expertly organised by an absent Frannie!

See WHAT's ON NEXT at GoodGym Brighton!

Five of us met at the Queen Victoria's statue and headed to the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership Community Kitchen, where we joined the rest of the GoodGymers. Jo, our task owner, told us about the family community cooking classes they’ve been running all summer to support Brighton & Hove's funded Holidays Activities and Food programmes to beneficiary children and young people who learned how to make simple, healthy and delicious homemade dishes.

Our job tonight was to clean up the kitchen and make it extra welcoming for the final class on the day after.

We were joined by Tabitha, who’s soon moving to Amsterdam, and Carla, who’s also leaving Brighton soon. It was great to have them with us, and they worked hard to make the kitchen shine. If this was our last time seeing Tabitha, we wish her all the best and thank her for everything she’s done with GoodGym ❤️. We look forward to seeing Carla again before she goes 😉.

After a good scrub, the kitchen was spotless and ready for the coming up grand finale of the family cookery class, happening the day after! We got to tick those tasks off the to-do list—a job well done! 🎂

Brighton GoodGym,Bravo!

Do you know that....

As GoodGym volunteer you can participate to cookery classes with a GoodGym discount code. Furthermore, we could attend a 6-week cookery course at the B&H Community Kitchen by accompanying people they support, as referred by TogetherCo. This is an exemplar GoodGym’s mission that could help isolated people to build up routine and feelings of confidence.

For more information, ask our GoodGym Area Lead, Stefania and email hello@togetherco.org.uk