Eleanor Tiernan: Cycling around dropping off vegan food is the highlight of my week

We shouldn’t let accusations of “virtue signalling” put us off doing more to help our communities

Eleanor Tiernan

Some people are just amazing self-starters. My friend Louise is one. When the war in Ukraine started she was moved to offer accommodation to a family she had a connection to via her kids in school. The offer was taken up and it’s gone well so she’s been arranging places to stay for more and more families in the local area. One thing always leads to another with her. Start small and before you know it there’s a massive operation going on.

I take my lead from others more often. During the pandemic, all of the comedy gigs I normally do were put on notice so I had a lot of time to kick around in. After a lot of banana bread and walks in the park, I eventually found a small volunteering role with an organisation near me in London called Made In Hackney. It’s a community food kitchen that prepares a massive batch of meals twice a week which are then delivered to the community. The food is all vegan and made with sustainability in mind. It’s not means-tested. Just for people who need it most.