What a cracking task!

12 lovely runners from Trafford ran to the Longford Centre last night to help out.

We met at our usual haunt of St Matthews Community Hall where we met THREE new GROUP runners and a newbie for a document check to be a COACH RUNNER. Wow!

We chatted about our news including our nomination for the January Challenge prize and our upcoming Community Mission for Stretford Parkrun on 29th January and then set about warming up as it was super chilly outside. All briefed and ready for action we headed out into the cold together.

We ran over to the Longford Centre which is a residential facility that provides accomodation and support to individuals who would otherwise be at risk of being without permanent accommodation. It's been in action around two years and as well as offering people 8 weeks of accomodation it aims to help people move forward providing support on job seeking, accessing benefits and also life skills such as cooking.

Part of their programme is to update the building to make it more homely and attractive - which is where our painting skills came in useful!

Once arrived at Longford (and following a squat challenge while we all assembled!) we met Jeannie, the centre's Volunteer Co-ordinator who introduced us to the centre and the tasks in hand.

We were tasked with painting the upstairs kitchen as it had become a bit grubby and tired over time. As we had such a cracking turnout, we divided ourselves into three teams - painting, kitchen and cleaning - yet again three tasks for the price of one!

So whilst at the Longford Centre we:

• Cleaned, taped and painted a kitchen
• Washed up and helped in the kitchen with the cooking class
• Set up and helped residents enjoy their dinner (particularly "Mr B" who was very intrigued to find out what GoodGym was all about!)
• Cleaned the lounge and surrounding areas

GREAT TO SEE GOODGYM IN ACTION, EVERYONE WAS IMPRESSED!

Once we had gathered ourselves back together we ran back to base and stretched off going through our successes and talking about plans for next week's run.

Big shout out to our new Group runners for this week - great to see you and have you on the team!

Gemma

Coral

Dave

Well done to our lovely team of eleven Goodgymers who went to help out at Stretford Foodbank last night.

We met as usual at St Matthew's Community Hub and chatted about the task in hand, everyone's weeks and also about Taskforce member Fiona's daughter who has achieved her PHD! Wowsers!

We also welcomed Maddie[https://www.goodgym.org/runners/maddie-sharpe] to her first Wednesday group run and task after her Super Saturday baptism a few months back - great to see you!

Once we'd warmed up we ran to our task location which was the storage facility for Stretford Foodbank. They needed our muscles (and enthusiasm!) to help moving stock as they have secured additional storage to cope with continued increased demand and the wonderful donations from the local community.

We met the awesome Louise and Christine who explained the background of the foodbank and its increasing importance to many local people who find themselves needing help. The importance of the Foodbank's work really hit home when we learnt that they provide a tonne's worth of food a week - a phenomenal amount and that many people volunteer who have either used the foodbank in the past or in case they may need to in the future.

Once fully briefed we set about moving the many boxes of cans, tea, pasta and toiletries to name a few.

With a dose of true GoodGym motivation we shifted and sorted all the boxes in a snap and went on our way with Louise and Christine possibly feeling like they'd been in a whirlwind!

thank you, you're all angels!

We made our way back to base and talked about future tasks for the Foodbank and volunteering opportunities. We stretched off and then talked about our task next week which is for Cheeky Cherubs CIC!

Well done again all, thanks for making a difference to such an important local organisation ❤