FoodCycle Islington
FoodCycle Islington hosts free weekly community meals for anyone who wishes to join.
We use surplus food and create free nutritious, vegetarian meals prepared by a team of volunteers on the day. We invite everyone from the community to come and share a delicious meal and to form friendships over good food and company.13 GoodGymers have supported FoodCycle Islington with 2 tasks.
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Previous sessions
Flyering Over Andover for Foodcycle Finsbury Park
Monday 6th November 2023
Written by Simon Fitzmaurice
Area Activator Simon, Kim and Patricia met up at the Arsenal Community Hub on a brisk Monday evening this week. Together, our plan was to visit the Foodcycle Finsbury Park site on the Andover Estate (about 0.6 miles from our start point) to distribute flyers to households in the neighbourhood. Foodcycle offer warm places, social opportunities, essential supplies and often hot food for anyone in need (no questions asked!), so we were thrilled to be assisting this excellent cause.
Between us, we made a very efficient system for flyering housing blocks- ensuring that we didn't flyer a single house twice accidentally. Each runner would post at the first, second or third block of flats, and return to the group for the next location. Kept us on our feet (we covered over 1.6 miles total distance dropping off leaflets!). Excellent job everyone!
Next week we will be visiting Thornhill Square Gardens, followed by a smashing November social over at The Swimmer N4.
Sign up here for Thornhill Square Gardens:
And sign up here for The Swimmer N4 social:
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/post-group-run-social-november-the-swimmer
Goodgym Islington News
Achilles International VI Guide Running Sessions- Emirates Stadium
Thursday 9th November, 6pm, Arsenal Underground station
Every Thursday, the all abilities sports charity Achilles International holds a group run session at a London location. This week, we will be meeting up at Arsenal tube station, ready to run around the Emirates Stadium concourse. Open to runners and guides of all abilities! Follow the link to find out more:
The Green Classroom Morning Gardening Sessions
Wednesday 8th November, 10am - midday, Newington Green
An open invitation to attend a wonderful gardening session hosted by Lizzy and Decibel of The Green Classroom, a wild cultivation space in Newington Green.
Sessions are available on the following dates:
Wednesday 8th November https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/the-garden-classroom-newington-green-volunteer-morning-dd4a2a57-faca-4d7e-a0f4-623f517a832d
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Met League Cross Country - Wormwood Scrubs
Saturday 11th November, 12:45pm - 3:45pm, Claybury Park
Met League Cross Country is a set of five 7-8km races organised by London race clubs. They are held in parks and forests around London with the routes including a mixture of grass, gravel and a fair bit of mud (it is XC after all!)
Cross Country is for everyone! Wonderful fun- sign up here for more information!
Crouch End Open Space (CREOS)- November 2023
Sunday 19th November, 11-1pm, Hanley Tennis Club Car Park
Our monthly woodland regeneration session with the CREOS volunteering team. Forest path building followed by a smashing picnic with Crouch End locals!
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/crouch-end-open-space-creos-volunteering-day-november-2023
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GG Race Team- Met League Hill Training Sessions!
Thursday 24th November, 6.30pm, The Pembroke Castle, Camden
Goodgym Cross Country is back! We will be returning to the Met League in 2023 and 2024!
If you have never tried cross country, it is amazing muddy fun. A definite challenge, but accessible to all who want to give it a go, and are part of a UKA affiliated team (Goodgym Race Team).
To coincide with the events, Area Activator Simon Fitzmaurice (who is a UK Athletics Coach in Running Fitness or CiRF for short) will be hosting a series of hill interval training sessions at Primrose Hill over the Autumn and Winter months.
The Pembroke Castle, 150 Gloucester Ave., London NW1 8JA, and we will run to Primrose Hill together to start our session.
November 24th https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/gg-race-team-met-league-hill-training-session-november
January 5th https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/gg-race-team-met-league-hill-training-session-january
January 26th (aka February fixture session) https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/gg-race-team-met-league-hill-training-session-february
Penn Road Gardens Volunteer Open Day- November 2023
Sunday 26th November, 10-midday, Penn Road Gardens
Every last Sunday of the month, the residents of Penn Road invite keen volunteers to help with maintaining this lovely community spot just off Holloway Road.
https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/penn-road-gardens-open-morning-november
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Freightliner's Farm Sunday Special- December
Sunday 3rd December, 11.30-1pm, Sheringham Road, Islington
We are so happy to be invited back to the wonderful Freightliner's Farm just off Paradise Park for our first regular weekend volunteering day!
The team will be on hand to offer some animal friendly tasks around the site.
Sign up here:
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/freightliner-s-farm-sunday-special
Flyering around Orwell's gaff
Monday 11th October 2021
Written by Simon Fitzmaurice
Last night, Goodgym Islington were treated to a gorgeous Autumnal evening for running around the Canonbury and Highbury boroughs. 11 runners in total joined us at the Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road (including new members Audrey and Benedetta- welcome!), where we enjoyed a chat about our weekend adventures (congratulations to Steve on his excellent running at the Adidas City Run yesterday- we also look forward to hearing from our Manchester Marathon heroes too!). After a warm-up on the Emirates slopes, we ran together past Highbury and Islington station, and on to the Canonbury Tavern.
Our task this evening was to distribute flyers for an amazing local project called FoodCycle Islington (a charity that Alison has previously helped with!), who offer hot cooked food for anyone who requires it, no questions asked. The organisation are currently looking for volunteers, regular assistance, funding and new clients, so these local flyering sessions are important to the development of the cause. Area Activator Simon arrived with 250 flyers and a stack of maps for the immediate area, and our 5 teams of Goodgymmers ran across the borough to share the FoodCycle message. Simon stayed put at the Canonbury Tavern watching bags (the pub itself is about two houses away from George Orwell's residence, according to a blue plaque!).
Our team made short work of the flyering task (amazing how efficient a crew of Goodgymmers with maps can be!), so we enjoyed a more scenic run back to the Emirates Stadium, passing Highbury Fields on route.
Wonderful running everyone! We will be returning to Market Road Gardens next Monday for more gardening goodness!
Cross Country Fun this weekend!
Racing is well and truly back after a long hiatus, so now could be the perfect time to join the Goodgym Race Team!
https://www.goodgym.org/race-team
Goodgym are entered into the Met League Cross Country season 2021-2022, a series of 5 muddy trail races across London. Expect hills, puddles, countryside, river crossings and lots of laughs with good people!
Seriously some of the best running fun available, and 100% open for all runners signed up to the Goodgym Race Team.
The first in the series is this Saturday in Claybury, East London.
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/met-league-cross-country-claybury