We were delighted to be back helping East Bristol Foodbank this evening and especially to help them with creating their Christmas packs which are getting delivered from tomorrow. Nathalie, Sarah, Russ and I started in our exam style (or book signing?!) two metres apart desks. Each of us were given 25 Christmas cards to write, which would later be given with the Christmas packs to each family.

Meanwhile, Mel was given some tricky boxes to review and make sure they had the correct ingredients (chicken stock is not halal, for anyone wondering). Having finished in no time (we reckon he must have just scribbled in them all), Russ joined Mel and got started with some packs maths problems, with the important job of making sure there were always the right amount of selection boxes for every child in each family.

40 minutes later (and Mel's keys lost then found), we had finished all of Andy's list of jobs for the evening ready for the packs to start being distributed tomorrow. Great work!

Well didn't Shrove Tuesday crepe up on us. We had a small but mighty group of GoodGymers who came with us for an evening of Good Deeds. Between us, we group were split between East Bristol Foodbank and The Southville Centre. It was great to have a very tanned Matt join us following his return from his Costa Rican adventure.

Alice D led a running group and Mel led a walking group to the Southville Centre to continue the painting job we started last week. Hugh from BS3 Community had two jobs for us to do and so the group were split between doing some furniture upcycling and railing painting. Thirty minutes later and the group were ready to go and back Queen Square, where they got some more running in with some paced Queen Square laps before finishing.

Meanwhile, Alice W back-marked the rest of us in going to East Bristol Foodbank for a big donation-sort following their supermarket collection last week. There were 70 crates of donations waiting to be sorted, and with all hands on deck, this GoodGym crew got through more than three quarters of them. We have supermarket shelf stacking careers waiting for us. Tim enlightened us with the fact we all didn't realise that we wanted to know, that 99.6% of people in the UK ate something out of a can last year. This left us a whole run back to ponder what our favourite canned item we ate last year was and what that 0.4% ate with no baked beans. Riveting thoughts, let me tell you.

After all that, we headed back to Queen Square, had a quick hopping race and went to catch-up on those pancakes. See you on the flip side.

It was another mega edition of new runners at GoodGym Bristol tonight - it was great to have Vicki, Maria, Tom, Rosie, Sophie and David join us for the first time, as well as some of the Team GB GoodGym event runners come and join us for a regular session.

To match this huge number we also had three tasks to complete tonight. We got warmed up with a game of the playground-classic, Toilet Tig, then split into three groups, with Maria and Mel run and walk leading - thank you both!

Toilet humour

The warm-up was fitting to get Mel's group ready for their task, as they were heading on a walk/run group back to the Southville Centre. After we had given their toilets a first lick of paint last week, our crafty walkers and runners got to work putting all hands on deck to give it a second coat. Even though some people were said to be loos-ing the plot (thanks Mel), the bathrooms were soon looking glossier in their sleek gray (the latest colour trend, of course).

Loos-ing the Plot

Meanwhile, Maria led a group of 10 on a longer 9km run to help the Matthew Tree Project at their gardening allotment plot. The group took the hill up there in their stride and arrived ready to tackle the work to be done. Rosa set the team to their tasks of composting, weeding and picking tomatoes. Not only did they get to use wheelbarrows, they also got a great view of Bristol as dusk fell!

Crate burpees

The rest of the group headed off to Easton to help East Bristol Foodbank. They have just had their recent delivery of supermarket collection donations and we were doing our regular task of sorting them into different categories so they can be easily distributed to people in need. Andy from the food bank said that our half an hour session with them had saved their regular volunteers 3-4 hours of work! Wow.

As we were such a big group, we split into two groups, with half working and half doing The Centurion Burpee Challenge at any one time. This was created specially for this evening's centurion, Alice, but she had managed to sneak off into the toilet crew so everyone had to do her burpees for her. The two groups smashed it, with the winning teams making it to the top of Victorious Hill in 5 minutes and 4 minutes respectively.

After all of this, we headed back to Queen Square to reunite the groups and to crown Alice with her celebratory Centurion outfit and the latest addition of the UniHorn, which centurions now have to ride around the circle, while galloping, holding their shield and high-fiving all the rest of the GoodGymers. Some say it is harder than doing all of the 100 deeds put together. Massive well done Alice - you are amazing!

To prove her amazingness to us all even more, Alice had baked DELICIOUS celebratory scones which she militantly guarded until people proved that they were eating them the Cornish way. Stay true to your routes, girl.

Pun credit to Matt and Mel, who are way funnier than me

The morning's torrential rain cleared up for us to have our first non-rainy run in weeks. It was great to have James, Lee, Sam, Briony, Jim, Rachael join us for the first time tonight - we look forward to seeing you again soon!

The group split in half to cover two tasks tonight. Mel tackled her injury to lead a team of 16 to Hannah More Primary School. There, Caretaker Bob provided them with brand new pitchforks to turn all of the bark in the extensive playground. It was a large area but the team managed to cover it all and even had time to practice their monkey skills and unearth some ancient dinosaurs. All in an evening's work.

Crate expectations

Meanwhile, the rest of the group headed for a long-awaited return to East Bristol Foodbank. They had their most recent supermarket collection today with 1.7 tonnes of food. Andy from the food bank had set up the sorting room ready for us when we arrived.

A little less concencrate-ion, a little more action

Most of the group quickly got to sorting all of this food into different categories ready to be made into food parcels. With Chris's efficient technique of a sorting station and food-category runners, the pace of the group increased dramatically and they got through all of the crates set aside for us and more.

All creatures crate and small

Meanwhile, the Hardcore Group set to hoovering and sanitising all of the crates to prevent any unwanted furry visitors to the store. With their efficient work they got through all the crates just in time for our return run.

After a short detour for a Four Minute 🍑 Blast (which everyone will be feeling tomorrow) we got back to Queen's Square to celebrate Chris's completion of his 250th Good Deed - massive well done Chris! We celebrated with the now traditional Vienetta and the cake he brought, which was so unbelievably delicious that we will forgive him for not baking it himself and getting it through some dodgy black-market deals.

Title pun credit to Matt 🦕

Can you do the can-can?

Tonight we headed back to practice our can-sorting, weighing and lifting skills while helping East Bristol Food Bank to sort their 200 crates of supermarket donations ahead of the Christmas period. This is always a busy time, both for the donations coming in and the amount of food being processed through the food bank, so it was all hands on deck to get as much sorted as possible.

While Matt conquered his Winter Wonderland walking badge with the accompaniment of Debbie, the rest of split into two groups. Sally led a steadier group while the rest of us went on ahead. When we arrived at East Bristol Food Bank's new premises, Andy explained the sorting process to us and set the first group to work.

We can

Between the group, they manned the scales and weighed each crate to calculate how much had been donated, then split them into grouped items to make them easy to distribute.

Meanwhile, Sally's group arrived and they got the short straw of having to go straight into their fitness session from their run. On the tiny platform of dry ground outside the food bank, the group squeezed together to create a human-Tetris of plank holds, press ups, chair sits and more. After 10 minutes of work, hopefully their thighs, core and arms had enough burn to make them feel virtuous as they switched places with the other group in a food-sorting-and-fitness relay.

(but it would be better with some tin-sel...)

In no time, the group had sorted a large amount of the crates ready for distribution and had exercised GoodGym restraint not cracking into any of the biscuits. We waved Andy goodbye and set off home in the short dry-spell we had. On return, we got treated by Zdeni, who has flown through her good deeds and hit her 50th Good Deed at the weekend. She made the most amazing pernik which I promptly ate most of. Thanks Zdeni!

Welcome to Amanda, Kevin and Jessica who joined us for their first GoodGym Bristol run tonight - it was great to have you! And thanks to Alice for this week's pun!

A bit of drizzle doesn't put Bristol GoodGym off! Despite the dreary weather and the umbrella obstacles, our group of runners helped two brilliant projects tonight. It was great to have so many new faces join us tonight - welcome John, Chris, Zoe, Tim and Matthew!

After we warmed up, the group split into two tasks: Westbury Park and the East Bristol Food Bank.

Westbury Park Wanderers

The Westbury Park group set off on their longer and hillier run. They made quick progress and were greeted by Sue and Paul from St Alban's Church who soon set them to work on the area. The group were sanding down the doorway to the church and weeding their way around the area (with regular trowels this time, not the famous golden trowel which made it's way there last time). After a biscuit-refueling, the group ran back and set such a quick pace that they had finished stretching before the Food Bank group were even in appearance!

Food Bank Fighters

The rest of us set off to our regular task, the East Bristol Food Bank. After our numerous occasions of helping them at their old storage unit, we had the exciting news that they had found their own space and they were moving. The group split into the packers and the unpackers, with the packers heading to say a final fond farewell to the our favourite lift in Bristol, while the unpackers went to investigate the new warehouse. While the packers cleared out the stocked up rooms and sent the final food donations on their way, the unpackers weighed and sorted the donations from the past week. There was a tie for the 'Weirdest Donation of the Week' between edible eyeballs and lemon cheese. Meanwhile, Clo and Caroline made a toilet roll tower which they were so proud of that I have attached a photo for the whole world to see.

With all of this help to sort their new space, the food bank will be able to receive more donations (and fit more GoodGymers inside to help!) - hooray!

We all had our first dark run back to our base. Remember your head torches and hi-vis from now on everyone!