This week our group run took us to the Green House Community Hub's new cafe. With the cafe due to open at the weekend it was all hands on deck to get the finishing touches done and the furniture assembled.

With ten Goodgymers we soon turned the space into a hive of activity, building flatpacks, moving furniture, last bits of painting, weeding outside. It was all happening!

With a good bit of teamwork we managed to get all the flatpacks done in quick time and got the cafe team a day ahead on their plans. The cafe is well on the way to being a welcoming new community hub.

All that in the middle of an 8km run as well!

We had a great turnout this week with a mixture of walkers and runners so we sent the walkers off early for a head start while the runners got warmed up to take on the evenings uphill struggle to our task.

We were all heading to the Green House community hub where progress on the new cafe space was coming along well. The main cafe space had had one coat but needed another coat and some cutting in. With red, white and green walls to paint we split into three colour coded teams and got going.

The red and green areas being smaller we managed to get finished and left them looking properly smart. The white area was too big for us on this occasion but we got it half done so there's not too much left for their weekend volunteers to work on.

Before we could leave we had to take a moment to celebrate birthday girl Mayra, so with the help of Mr Kipling we enjoyed a round of cake and sung happy birthday!

Tonight, 9 of Luton Goodgyms finest came together to support Penrose roots to recovery. The team made there own way to the task, some running from town, and others making their own way. Tigger even parked up early then went for a cheeky 10k run 🏃‍♀️ beforehand.
We were welcomed by Lynne at Penrose with all the tools to get stuck in to turning over a vast bed, preparing it for planting potatoes 🥔. There were quite a few weeds to clear and the team cleared quite a few wheel barrow full. We didn't get to dig the trenches but we'll no doubt be back to support again soon. Great job team. You're all awesome.

Despite the miserable weather, Martin , Mayra , and Gill turned up at High Town Baptist Church ready to get stuck into food preparation for tonight's FoodCycle meal. They had been hoping for a bumper delivery of food, but today there was no food surplus from Sainsbury's and only a few boxes of veg from Aldi. Gill's quick thinking meant that she had bought over 100 Quorn sausages, to go with some chips and wedges we had stored in the freezer a few weeks ago. Mayra got busy turning some tins of kidney beans and chopped tomatoes into home made baked beans and the main course was on it's way to being sorted. In the meantime Martin got busy with the help of another FoodCycler in preparing a delicious and hearty leek, potato and parsnip soup and while Gill was detailed with pudding (a vegan upside down banana sponge with syrupy orange segments and of course some custard.

While the cooking crew were kept busy Fredy arrived for his first time at FoodCycle and was soon put to work getting out the tables and chairs, and getting the hall ready for our guests. He was then a wizz at getting drinks made and then serving up the dinner alongside the others on the hosting team.

Once again GoodGym made a huge impact on the successful running of the session and there were lots of empty plates and satisfied guests who paid tribute to their efforts.

Well done Team - it was a great effort and a fabulous meal.

On Saturday the GoodGymers were out in force helping set up decorations and serve food and drinks for those attending a St. Patrick’s Day celebration. It was a great day organised for the local elderly community and there was a fantastic turnout of over 100 people! Everyone was in great spirits as they were treated to some traditional Irish dancing, songs from a local Irish folk band, a prize raffle and a round of bingo!! The GoodGym team also got to sample some of the lovely lunch for their hard work, which was a lovely lamb stew. The organisers were so thankful for our help and hard work on the day, and some of the attendees also expressed their gratitude and thanks. Can we do the same for St. George’s Day please?