This week, 12 GoodGymmers made their way to One Church on Florence road, to help them clear space for a community compost to be installed. One Church Brighton is a broad and inclusive church, who do lots of different activities in and around Brighton, from worship to running community cafes, and putting on events.

6 of us braved the run up Ditchling Road, while others made their own way via bike or walking - all of us arriving to a warm welcome from out host (and very own GoodGymmer!) Michael, and Danny from local skincare company My Skin Feels - whose generous donations are funding the new composting site, which will be used by the local community.

After collecting some rather serious looking tools, we all got stuck in clearing an old flower bed and leveling the soil. Although our enthusiasm quickly waned as we discovered just how difficult removing a tree from the root is 😄. Liam, Euan and Frances did a fantastic job digging and sawing until eventually the bulk of the tree root gave way.

Whilst some of us were busy playing lumberjacks, others set about clearing the church walls and flowerbeds from weeds and litter, ensuring the space looked it's very best for the community who uses it.

A big welcome this week to two first timers to Brighton GoodGym, Jorge and Tristian. We hope you had fun and that we'll see you at another task soon :)

We had a great turnout of runners, with 10 of us meeting at the Peace Statue and running to the task. Two others cycled to the site, and three more met us directly there, making a fantastic group of 14 ready to get to work. We welcomed new member Susie, and Charli returning for her second session, to the team.

We were helping out at St Thomas Fund, a residential rehabilitation service in Brighton & Hove run by the charity Change Grow Live. They offer a safe space for adults on their journey to becoming free of drugs and alcohol. Sean, who welcomed us, gave a fantastic introduction to the organisation, the site and their mission, explaining that our task was to transform a bindweed-covered area into a usable space for yoga and meditation.

The area was completely carpeted in weeds. We even found a rake that the tenacious bindweed had tried to consume! We had a laugh wondering how long you'd have to sunbathe before it took you over, too. But the team, including Sean, with tools and gloves provided by St Thomas Fund, made short work of it.

Nicola and Sarah did a particularly fantastic job of rescuing a fig tree from the grip of the bindweed. By the end of the session, the whole area looked transformed. You could see the soil in the beds again, and we filled somewhere between 10 and 20 bags with weeds and rubbish.

Sean seemed to be really happy with what we achieved, emphasizing how the collective effort of so many volunteers can make a huge difference in a short amount of time. It was a great feeling to see the space ready for residents to use for peaceful activities. A big thank you to Sean and St Thomas Fund for having us.

A beautiful 13km trail run across the downs from Lewes to Brighton ending with a dip in the sea.

On an evening where a sea fret had drifted in to take the edge off a scorching day, half a dozen GoodGymers coasted up Lewes Road to the FareShare warehouse in Moulsecoomb, the Sussex branch of the national organisation tackling food waste.

The team was welcomed by Steven, Partnerships Coordinator at FareShare Sussex & Surrey, who gave an outline of the organisation's breadth of activity and engagement in the region (it works with around 250 charities and community groups) and a thorough briefing on the assignment of sorting donated items into crates to give to those homes most in need of support. He explained that the current summer school holidays (along with Christmas) was one of the main pinch points of the year for those households experiencing food insecurity. Steven was already familiar to some, having completed this year's Brighton Marathon weekend 10k in 1hr 20 by dancing the route in a gold onesie, and he shared experiences as a choreographer and dancer including 15 years with Ballet Rambert.

Steven masterfully choreographed the GoodGym team, who all donned hi-vis jackets and steel capped boots, as they sorted a variety of long-lasting tinned and dry food items evenly between crates, including a lot of pasta, cereals and rice, and many cans of fruit, vegetables, curries, meatballs, ham and fish. Food had to be inspected to ensure it was still in date; the record out-of-date discovery was a Loyd Grossman bolognese sauce jar with a 'best before' in 2016.

Steven applauded the flurry of activity that saw the team complete 70 filled crates of food (a total 700kg) to be delivered to help some of the local struggling households; 28,000 people at risk of food poverty access food every week from FareShare in the region. With an estimated 1 in 7 households in the UK experiencing food insecurity (1) against the backdrop of the UK having the sixth highest GDP in the world, the need for more fairness and more sharing is high. FareShare are reliant on different streams of volunteer support, and GoodGym Brighton vowed to return soon to support this essential local organisation.

(1) https://foodfoundation.org.uk/initiatives/food-insecurity-tracking#tabs/Round-16

16 Goodgymmers made the short jog over to Brighton Community Kitchen on Queens Road for our regular clean-up mission. We welcomed new Goodgymmer Charli, who has recently made the big move from Worthing over to Brighton, for her first task.

The Brighton Community Kitchen does vital work in the community to teach valuable cooking skills to those who might otherwise might not have access. Recently they have been working with the Marcus Rashford-backed project to provide meals over the holidays to children who are eligible for free school dinners. They have hosted classes for both the children and their parents to impart practical day-to-day cooking skills.

We were excited to see that the Kitchen has recently been upgraded with new sinks and a Food Dehydrator. The dehydrator particularly allows them to preserve vegetables that wouldn't otherwise by used, store them and later use them as ingredients. There was a big batch of Tomatoes, Onions and Carrots in the dehyradator during our clean.

Jo greeted us with her usual enthusiasm and gratitude, along with her famous todo list on the wall. This time we cleaned all the windows both inside and out, transformed the drawers from chaos to order, gave all the stools and work surfaces a good cleandown, scrubbed the ovens and of course sorted the cheese graters! Our extra large turnout meant we were able to knock-off all the tasks in no time.

With our tasks finished and everything ticked off of Jo's list we sauntered off into the summer night back to our own (slightly less sparkly clean) kitchens.