Veronica Ryan OBE, Turner Prize winner, said: “My early experiences as a child include going with my mother and baby sister to Ridley Road market to buy fruit, vegetables, fabric and thread. I wanted to create something that had a connection with my family and the wider community. Ridley Road market seemed to be very central to that. It’s wonderful to be making permanent sculptures that represent a community in ways that are visible. I hope people...feel happy that it’s there, that it belongs to them.”

Michelle Dornelly, Pride of Britain’s TSB Community Hero Award winner, runs the Hackney Community Food Hub. She said: “Food is your basic essential. You cannot live without food. It’s quite simple. We’re facing an epidemic where it’s going to be affecting us all. It’s every person’s right to have something to eat. Old people are sitting in the cold, in their homes. There are families who can’t afford to turn their cookers on to heat up meals for their kids. I never turn down people in need.”

Jenny Sealey OBE, the CEO and artistic director of Graeae theatre in Hoxton, said: “I am very curious to know why Deaf and disabled people are considered second class citizens? Why are we ghettoised, discriminated against and deemed worthless? We have a right to be part of the cultural fabric of society. Graeae is about disability arts being owned by everybody. We have the most fantastic different senses in how we see the world – that makes a rich, exciting, different and informative experience.”

Joyclen Buffong, founder of Hackney youth organisation Rise 365, said: “I go hard for young people. I see them as my own. If we build a generation of young people who are inspired by love, that is only a good thing. They have so many challenges in society to deal with and I want to continue to fight for them, and be their voice, as much as I can. At Rise, we want to change the narrative of young people overall – and in particular for young, Black boys. One of the things we really want to push is the positive; these young men choose to look after their community and give their time for others.”