We have committed £124,500 of funding to the emergency food network in the city, covering expenses for supporting vulnerable residents for the next three months.
Since mid-March, the council has been leading the city’s response to Covid-19 along with our partners Brighton & Hove Food partnership, supporting food hubs to provide food parcels and hot meals to those in need.
We have also committed funding of £45,000 so far to the food effort, split between core funding for our partners the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership (£15,000) and matching the funding of the #HungryAtHome crowdfunding campaign (£30,000).
This new funding commitment of £124,500 will be split between food banks already in existence pre-Covid19, newly set up food hubs, funding for community meals, same day emergency food parcels and funding for the children’s centre food bank.
The city’s response to the Covid-19 crisis has been incredible, with projects cropping up all over the city to help projects that already existed to support the city during the pandemic.
The network, that is mostly run by volunteers, continues to be delivering at a phenomenal scale, with demand for emergency food still high including food parcels being provided for 4831 people in 3001 households across the city.
In the week of 30 March 2020, this was 400 parcels and 1800 meals compared with 420 parcels being distributed by emergency food providers before the Covid19 crisis.
The funds committed will be routed through the Food Partnership to continue to support the joint working between food projects and the Partnership.
The Partnership also have valuable insight into the specific needs of each project within the emergency food network, helping projects to redesign and adapt their operating model when needed.
This city-wide approach is important as we move towards a recovery programme for the city.
Councillor Anne Pissaridou, lead member for food, said: “I am delighted that we have committed £124,500 to the emergency food network within the city.
“This money will go a long way in providing food parcels and meals to vulnerable residents in need over the next three months.
“We are determined that no-one in Brighton & Hove will go hungry and although there is still a long way to go for the city to recover from this crisis, we will continue to fight for those that need our help.”
