3 JOBS AT STEPNEY CITY FARM

Charlotte Bradford reports: Last night’s run was my first time at GoodGym and it was great! I’d been wanting to volunteer to do some community work for ages, but most places I’d researched required me to have a car, but lo and behold an email came through about GoodGym, which meant I could run to and from my GoodGym! Last night we ran about 2.5km to Stepney City Farm and helped out for about 45 minutes with three different tasks: transporting barrows of manure and woodchip to various locations on the farm to be reused; digging over newly laid flower beds and adding manure to them; and then laying down woodchip on some footpaths. Quite happily I got stuck in with a fork and dug over the beds and turned in the new manure. A small reward for the work was that we got to pet a lovely black pig and speak to few more spotty pigs before leaving. Our work was also accompanied by the occasional “neigh!” and a chorus of approval from the billy goats every time someone ran past with a barrow of muck! Then another 2 or 3 km home, a little further for the half of the group who split off and went a longer route. All in all, it was over an hour’s workout - close to 90 minutes which is more time than I would spend in the gym generally, and it felt good to have done something for the community. As a newcomer, my first tie at GoodGym was great, and I can’t wait to get stuck into visiting the isolated. Special thanks to Hackney Tours for taking pictures, and for leading the long run together with Pete Dyson.