Brighton Food Bank

General information

A quote from Fareshare

“In my experience Brighton Food Bank is one of the UK’s best food banks”

I praise it for 4 reasons:
1.) Its strict referral only policy
2.)The personal tailored support to understand the underlying cause of the crisis.
3.) It’s empowering respect to clients giving a choice and letting them select the food.
4.) It’s genuine care and compassion to help clients move on in life

Established in 2000, Brighton Food Bank was one of the first food banks in the country. With our 15 years of experience feeding people in financial crisis, and being Brighton’s busiest food bank, we have been able to offer advice to the many needed food banks opening around the city.

In 2015 we gave out over 2400 food parcel and 90 start-up home packs.

A food parcel for one adult equates to roughly £28 worth of food. Our Start-Up Home packs include such things as a tin opener, kettle, pans, a bed sheet and duvet.

Our clients come to us via referrals from organisations around the city. We hope each client, will only need to make the maximum of four weekly visits, before their crisis is resolved.

Each time a client visits us, we offer them a hot drink whilst we sit and listen to their crisis; any change in circumstances and offer encouragement. They are then taken into the food bank shop, where they can choose their food.

For some of our clients it is just a matter of time, whilst they wait for a cheque to clear, a job to start, or benefits to begin. Yet for others there are more underlying issues such as debt, bereavement, a breakdown of relationship or illness. With these clients we help them contact organisations who can assist; act as advocates writing letters for the client in respect to housing issues; and support them emotionally, as they find their way out of crisis.

We rely heavily on food donations from individuals, schools, churches, and businesses