A group of 6 enthusiastic good gymers made their way over to the farm for another day helping create a massive wildlife pond with cheery host Alex. The weather was absolutely cracking! Sarah and Elle filled baskets of pebbles and moved a shingle beach from one end of the pond to the other. Whilst Becky, Alex, Eva and Stephen filled wheelbarrows with aquatic soil and wheeled it to cover the liner around the pond and in the water catchment area. We worked hard with everyone having aching muscles at the end. We finished with a treat - seeing the one day old lambs and kids!

There's only one place to be on a Friday night these days... our favourite Crisis warehouse! Richard had a new set of tasks for us tonight, as one of the main distribution warehouses for Crisis this year there are many different items that need to be shipped to other Crisis locations from our East London Hub so we set to work organising various items. Over 1000 bags will be packed over the coming days by volunteers ready to go to Crisis users over Christmas so we had a team moving pallets of various items including shower gel, snack bars, plugs, masks and more into the right sequence so that there's an easy assembly line for volunteers to follow - special mention to Tracey for taking charge of the 'shopping list'!

On one side of the room we had power packs and various items being counted and sorted ready to go to different locations, and on the other side another team counting the bags so that we had the right number ready to be packed underneath each hub due to receive them, maths skills were put to the test to divide boxes of 250 into various groups ranging from 50 to 400... we got there in the end and this will really speed things up for the volunteers packing bags as they won't need to count for each location.

Finally we had a team folding information sheets also ready to be packed in bags and given to Crisis users, there was lots to be folded but a really important task to increase awareness of support they have access to including GP services and more.

Before we left we had a round of applause for Rebecca who reached her 50 task milestone tonight - great work Becky, well done!!

On this cold evening a merry gang of 20 goodgymmers from Newham, Hackney and Tower Hamlets were greeted by Richard our task owner. It's always nice to see our neighbouring Goodgymers and this is such a worthwhile task.

We split into 3 groups. In the hub the larger group set to work to lay new carpet tiles and refresh the old ones in festive colours. By the end of the night the space was transformed and ready to be furnished.

In the pastoral care suite Sharon, Kevin and team were tasked with laying a carpet. Stanley knives were defeated, but they were not and left job done.

Meanwhile in the kitchen the cleaning team did a great job leaving a grungy space clean and fresh and ready for appliances to be installed next week.

It's great to see this space really starting to take shape now, but there is still lots more work to do.

A special welcome to Stephen from Tower Hamlets who joined us for his first mission, he will actually be using the building as a CRISIS volunteer. A special mention too to JC who crossed the river from Greenwich.

There are more CRISIS missions over the next few weeks, to make sure the space will be transformed into a working hub. This is a popular one, so sign up while you can.

We had not one but two brilliant GoodGymers writing tonight's report, with Sree's wonderful pun...

Says Sree,

"As the timeslot was earlier than usual (to get as much daylight in as possible) a whole new set of eager Stepney City Farm first timers were able to join this very popular community mission - guided by our very own Task owner Siobhan.

Reika and Anna chose the task of weeding, and Ellinor and Sarah chose to deadhead sunflowers. The rest of us - Katrine, Zoe and farm veterans Sree and Ceiling were given the task of sweeping the courtyard and barn.

As a result of our efforts, many wheelbarrow trips to the compost heap were required.

As the light started to fade, we packed up and spent some time getting acquainted with the barn animals.

As ever the mission flew by and was enjoyed by all those who attended. Hopefully we shall see some of you first-timers back at the Farm soon!"

And Reika adds,

"It’s lovely to see GoodGym friends and help our local farm, sharing laughter with donkeys before the lockdown.

Yes, it's a tough time for everyone but it’s priceless to do something for someone. x"