Michelle Dornelly video-calls me from a community centre in Clapton, east London. Her community centre, on the ground floor of a housing estate. She beams as she shows me around. “This is the kitchen! Just got to give it a good clean-out and we’re ready to go. I got us a microwave and a kettle.”
We last spoke in January 2022. Dornelly, a mother of four who runs Hackney Community Food Hub in east London without remuneration, was on the frontline of the cost of living crisis. Upbeat but exhausted, she lugged crates around community centres, desperate to find a permanent location for her operations, which also included Children With Voices, which provides after-school and holiday clubs for children at risk of obesity, holiday hunger and youth violence. When the piece was published in February 2022, Guardian readers donated en masse to the hub’s GoFundMe page. I watched the figures tick up with growing excitement. £50,000. £100,000. £150,000. As of today, the appeal stands at £206,171.
“I was shocked,” Dornelly says, “because it was from people outside our community as well. That just touched me.” She still does not take any salary, although she is in the process of finalising her job description and having it approved by the board. (An early draft of all her commitments ran to 16 pages.) She will also begin to pay some of her longest-standing volunteers on a part-time basis.
With the donations, Dornelly has paid for a five-year lease on their building, the Fawcett Estate Community Hall. “I’m really happy we’re in an estate,” she says, “because it means we can reach out to people in the surrounding areas.” It’s all hands on deck: a carpenter has just finished fitting cupboards to store food and local children came in to help paint a cheerful mural on the wall.
As well as food, Dornelly’s team will provide services to the wider community, such as after-school clubs and art therapy classes. “I’m going to teach keep-fit in this room,” Dornelly says (she is a qualified instructor). “I had a mirror put in.” There are sofas for the children to relax on and desks where they can do their homework. She hopes to grow fruit and veg.
The plan is to open this month to address the escalating cost of living crisis. “We don’t get given meat any more – we used to get loads,” Dornelly says. “And people coming to us say other food banks are closing down. That puts a lot of pressure on us. But we do what we can. ”
There is much to do to get the building ready. “I know I have my work cut out here,” Dornelly says. “But we have the passion of our volunteers fighting and believing in this goal. I am so excited to get this show on the road.”
