We went to New Beginnings on Saturday morning, while the breakfast service was on, to help with sorting the harvest donations received from local schools and businesses.

We got to work taking crates and bags out of the pantry, and restocking some of the existing stock to make more space for the new items.

In just under two hours, including a pause for a mug of tea, we managed to get everything put away, and most of the existing stock tidied up.

We're back again the last Saturday in November, and will probably be tackling the clothing cupboard!

We headed out along the Oxford Road for this week's task of a litter pick. We welcomed Charlie back for her second task, and Freyja, already a GoodGym centurion, for her first task in Reading. It started off slow, with not much litter around, but then the bags started filling up. We were thanked by a few people for what we were doing, which was very kind.

Along the way we found the usual mix of rubbish of bottles, cans and packets, but we didnt egg-spect to find a number of egg boxes and an Uno card!

In the end we filled 7 bags of litter along our 3km walk. We took our group photo outside New Beginnings, where we'll be for our next task on 18th October.

We went to Whitley Growallot on a sunny Sunday afternoon to help them with some preparations for growing food for next year!

There is so much to be done on the allotment all year round to be able to grow food for the community, so today we were tasked with clearing one of the large triangular beds to give a head start for next year's planting.

There were some onions to be harvest, and garlic to be saved for replanting, but all the weeds needed to go!

After almost two hours of work, we were able to cover the bed with cardboard and tarp to hopefully make sure the weeds stay away over the winter, so the bed will be easier to plant into in the new year.

With lots to be done, we'll be back again soon, to help at this great community asset!

On Monday three GoodGymers took to the streets of west reading to support Thames Hospice by delivering leaflets. We covered a good stretch of the neighbourhood, spreading the word about the new Thames Hospice superstore and managing to race the sunset and finish just before the last of the daylight disappeared. A steady pace, teamwork, and a shared cause made for a rewarding session and we all definitely hit our step goals. Mission accomplished!

Six GoodGymers set out to clear up Kings Road and Queens Road on Monday evening.

Armed with our new litter pickers and bags from Reading Council RAYS (Reading adopt your street), and joined for the first time by Narah and Daniel who is going to be leading GoodGym Basingstoke, we set off!

After another day of rain showers, we were lucky with a dry evening, however, the wind seemed to have blown quite a bit of the rubbish away... or so we thought!

Even on our 2km loop, we still managed to collect 6 bags of rubbish between us! As luck would have it, as we were finishing up, we met the leader of Keep Reading Tidy, who thanked us for our work. Maybe there will be a future collaboration for us!?