Text: an original contemporary news-feature-style practice extract.

On Thursday evening, the village hall smelled of onions and wet coats. The kitchen’s main oven had failed, so volunteers set two portable hobs on a trestle table and rearranged the chairs to make room. A handwritten menu appeared beside the door, its list of dishes crossed through and rewritten as ingredients ran short. Nobody seemed to mind the changes; people kept arriving with bowls tucked under their arms.

The organiser, Leena, said the meal had begun as a way to use vegetables from the community garden. She counted the empty bowls, then looked towards the doorway, where a late arrival was reading the menu. “We need to make sure people know they can come in,” she said. One volunteer suggested putting a notice at the bus stop. Leena wrote it on the back of the shopping list, between the price of lentils and a reminder to borrow another table.

By the time the last chair was folded away, the hobs had cooled and the shopping list was full of new notes. The evening had fed the people who found the hall, but the next meal would depend on more than what was in the garden. A notice might bring someone through the door; what happened after that would be decided around the table.