Faces of Kettering: Claire Gurney of Community Connections

“From My Conservatory to the Community”

We caught up with Claire Gurney, the founder of Community Connections and The Shack Food Project, to hear how a lockdown act of kindness grew into one of Kettering’s most vital community organisations.

Tell us how it all started.

Hi, I’m Claire and I run Community Connections and The Shack Food Project. We started in 2020, in my conservatory! It was lockdown, and people in the village didn’t have access to food, so I set it up to help them get what they needed.

From there we just kept growing. We outgrew my conservatory, then we outgrew my garage. People started asking for other things too – clothes and stuff – so we got our first unit down on Lower Street in 2021. We were there for five years, outgrew that as well, and now we’re here at 29 Gold Street.

What does the organisation do today?

We now work with Northamptonshire Children’s Trust, social services, midwives, schools, and practitioners – and we supply them with whatever children need. Toys, clothes, prams, cots – whatever it is, they get it all for free.

We’ve also got our charity shop, where things are for sale, and that gives us an income as an organisation. None of us get paid – we’re all volunteers – so that really matters.

We’re a food bank three days a week too. Then in August we do our annual seaside trip – we take as many children as we can to the coast for the day. And at Christmas we do 300 local families: a full Christmas dinner, toys for the kids, all for free. That’s what we do!

How can people get involved?

We always need donations – food, baby items, children’s clothes, anything really. Or people can donate to us financially if they’d like to help that way. It all goes straight back into what we do.

Community Connections and The Shack Food Project are based on Gold Street. To donate or find out more, get in touch with the team directly.

Facebook: facebook.com/TheShackFoodProject

This interview is part of Faces of Kettering – a celebration of the extraordinary people who make our town the place it is. Each person featured in the series has had their portrait painted by a local artist, with the paintings displayed in locations across Kettering town centre as a colourful reminder of the community spirit that runs through everything we do here.

You can find all of the portraits – and where to find them – on our interactive art trail map on the Love Kettering Hub. Whether you follow the trail in an afternoon or stumble across a painting on your daily routine, we hope each one makes you smile, and perhaps inspires you to find out a little more about the remarkable people who make Kettering great.