The September Grove Farm conservation day was a little bit like a rock star arriving late at the stage. The sense of anticipation started to build up when the GoodGymers received a message that Mike, the Grove Farm task leader, was running late.

The suspense didn't last long as Mike showed up only 2-3 minutes after his set time. But the support band was still playing! David Lloyd's forklift was dancing around the Friends of Grove Farm container after we had pointed out that pallets with cement had been blocking the entrance to the tool store.

When Afshin, Steph, Sevan, Mike, and Deborah set off to the top of the lane, near the Sudbury Hill tube station, Kash and her bass guitar (guess what tool was that) disappeared backstage (in David Lloyd's bathrooms). Later, she claimed something nasty had stuck to her backpack and hand, and the delay wasn't a case of fixing the stage makeup.

The Saturday's gig was all about chopping and raking the brambles and other weeds that (again!) overtook the patch that we had been preparing for the wildflower seeding last year. The clearance of the green stuff was quick, so the next part of our set was a litterpick. Among the ubiquitous beer cans and vodka bottles, we found three boxes of cereals of unknown provenance and known best-before date: the past. No one dared to claim the shady Cheerios and Coco Pops, so sadly, they went to the bin.

The next opportunity to get involved in the conservation work at Grove Farm will be next month - sign up now!

Each Monday morning GoodGym help the South Ealing Food Cupboard volunteers prepare to give away food to the community. Supermarkets and other organisations donate surplus food to prevent it being wasted. Lots of heavy lifting and speedy organisation is required to get a van-load of food ready to be shared!

This week Afshin, Mehmet, Martin, and Iram were on hand for the South Ealing Food Cupboard shift. The van was running fashionably late (well over an hour behind schedule!) but everyone stayed as long as they could. The extra time was spent soaking up the sunshine and chatting with the other volunteers, a real calm before the storm.

When the van finally rolled in it was worth the wait: a bumper haul of juice, potatoes, spring onions, carrots, broccoli, salad leaves, and crate after crate of assorted veg and meal-prep boxes. Sorting the meal prep boxes was no quick task, so in the end they were handed semi-sorted to the customers who were more than happy to rummage through and grab what they fancied.

It was a whirlwind shift of heavy lifting, speedy sorting, and plenty of teamwork!

Today's visit to Care4Calais included an unusual new task for the team to complete. A haul of prams, pushchairs and wheelchairs were unloaded from task owner Tamzin's car and they needed to be cleaned. Had they been (p)ram raided from a local shop? Not at all, they'd been recovered from a local recycling centre where they'd been sitting outside for a while. Kash offered to put on waterproofs, wash everything down and find out which ones still had more life in them.

Steph worked alongside Tamzin to prepare clothing packs for local hotels, tailoring them to the needs of each recipient. Some of the previously created packs had to be fixed too to correct the sizes of the clothes. Outside, Kash was also preparing a custom request, finding a wheelchair for an 11 year old who couldn't walk.

In another area, Afshin and Sevan worked on a third task, sorting new donations. Care4Calais are always in need of clothes, particularly for men, so there was a little disappointment from Tamzin to discover that there was mostly womens' clothing in the donated bags. Helpfully, some winter coats and hats were found too, which will be really useful in the coming months.

To wrap up the task, Steph moved the completed clothing packs to be collected by the delivery driver and the newly sorted clothes went to the storage room, replacing those that had been used. Apart from the slightly soggy wheeled transport outside and a lot of stock rotation, there was no evidence that GoodGym had been present, just in case the police do come knocking 👮.