Nicki Hoyne x Our Table

I have had an incredible year this year and I wanted to take the opportunity to thank those who have supported me while spreading that good fortune with a bit of Christmas magic to those who need it most. Last year I led 300+ people in raising €10,000 for Childline and this year I want to exceed that and raise €15,000 for those in Direct Provision. People who have faced incredible trauma in their lives and have come to Ireland for safety only to find themselves in the Direct Provision system.

This week I spoke to Ellie Kisyombe who founded Our Table, she told me how hard it has been to fundraise this year for her Christmas campaign. Our Table is aiming to reach 3000 refugees and asylum seekers living in the DP Centres in Dublin and across Ireland. The past two years have been very difficult for everyone, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the situation has been especially challenging and far more overwhelming for people in Direct Provision, who have limited social connections and little income to support their families. The money that will be raised will allow us to purchase One4All vouchers and to organise and deliver gift parcels to the different DP's centres.

Our Table

Our Table was founded in 2015 by activist Ellie Kisyombe and Michelle Darmody, who met through a shared belief that a conversation needed to be started about Direct Provision, and the idea that food was a good way to get conversation started. Ellie has been a vocal campaigner to end Direct Provision in Ireland as a volunteer with the Irish Refugee Council and almost spent a decade in living in Direct Provision. Michelle, who has a background in food and cooking, met Ellie after contacting the IRC to explore ways to use food to draw attention to the reality of Direct Provision..

In the Direct Provision system, 4,300 people seeking asylum in Ireland are denied the right to work and the right to cook. Adults in Direct Provision are given an allowance of just €19.10 per week and €15.60 per week per child. This cruel and unnecessary system needs to end, but in the meantime, Our Table is advocating for the rights of people in Direct Provision to cook for themselves and their families.

People in Direct Provision have no choice but to eat food prepared at set times on an industrial scale by companies profiting from the system. Banned from cooking in their rooms, some people secretly cook in toilets just to prepare something they want to eat. People living in Direct Provision report being hungry at night or being presented with low quality or culturally inappropriate food.

Mothers and fathers pass down skills, traditions, tastes and family recipes to their children through cooking. It’s how families bond and gather. But hundreds of children born into the Direct Provision system have never tasted a meal cooked by their parents. We all deserve a seat at our own table!

A massive thank you to my business friends who donated without hesitation Geraldine Jones of Skin Formulas, Jill & Gill, Jane Asple of Emma By Jane, Laura Chambers, Niamh Gillespie of Tidings & Printmaker Luke Reidy.

Thank you so much for your generosity.

Happy Christmas

Nicki :)