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.
