Read the full 2024 report or look at the summary.
The findings of the annual Emergency Food Network (EFN) Survey released today show 6,297 people a week are supported with emergency food from 60 locations across the city.
This is similar to the 6,441 people who were supported per week in 2023 and still 18% higher than the numbers in 2022. All these people were fed by a community food project, a fragile safety net that is at risk of collapsing.
The EFN survey has been conducted by the Food Partnership annually since 2014 and offers a snapshot of food need in one week of the summer. The survey shows that over half of Brighton and Hove’s food banks and other emergency food providers say they do not have enough funding to see themselves through to the new year.
Projects this year have seen an increase in people in work, as the cost of living has continued to hit households hard. This reflects countrywide pressures, 5.4 million UK households experiencing food insecurity in April alone.
“Our report is the latest in a massive body of evidence demonstrating the urgent need for Government action on food poverty”, said Jo Eckersley, Community Food Team Manager at Brighton and Hove Food Partnership.
“The stats show that of the total number of people supported each week 1,400 are children and 660 pensioners. This is happening in one of the 10 richest countries in the world. We are calling on the Government to take action in Wednesday’s budget to take steps to ensure our next emergency food report shows a better reality for people in this city.”
Prior to the pandemic the Emergency Food Network included 21 locations, but today this has gone up to 60.
“Each week local people in Brighton and Hove donate an incredible 3,400 hours of their precious time volunteering for food projects and surplus food distributors”, said Jo Eckersley, Community Food Team Manager at Brighton and Hove Food Partnership.
“As we continue to call for the Government to make the changes we need to eliminate food poverty, we are also calling on our community, our schools and the brilliant network of businesses we have here in Brighton, to help support this incredible sector by signing up to our Food SOS campaign to donate food and toiletries to help people this winter.”
Brighton and Hove’s emergency food network – made up of food banks, affordable food projects, community fridges and pantries, meals-on-wheels, community cafes and voucher schemes – is able to do an incredible amount of good despite limited resources. The majority of the projects are volunteer-led. Many were set up in response to the covid-19 pandemic.
“When we began the project at the start of the pandemic, we had no inkling that it would need to be continued to an even higher need years later,” said one food bank coordinator when responding to the survey.
Food projects report that food and/ or financial donations have dropped, surplus food supply has dropped, and they are spending more money for the same size of parcel or meal.
Despite this, projects keep their doors open and encourage anyone struggling to afford food to access their services. David is a member and volunteer at the Phoenix Food Shop. He said: “If you feel you need help we don’t ask questions. There’s no shame felt. In my childhood I was very stubborn about asking for help, my mum was too, so I know what it’s like.”
Other findings in the survey include:
- Projects noticed an increase in people with mental health issues, Black, Asian & Minoritised Ethnic people, and people in work.
- Projects across the city reported £15,770 was spent on food / food vouchers each week. That’s £820,040 per year. This doesn’t include the value of surplus and donated food that the projects also give out.
- The main reason by far that projects thought people accessed their food was the increase in costs of living with income levels not meeting basic household outgoings.
- Food projects reported on average 58% of people using their services were doing so indefinitely.
If you can donate food or money, either individually, or through your workplace, please sign up to the Food SOS campaign.
Case study: Community Shop Member & Volunteer, David
David has been an active member of the Phoenix Food Hub in central Brighton from its founding in 2020.
“It was hard to start with because we hadn’t done anything like that before. We threw ourselves in the deep end. The whole idea was to have a base where people come in and pick what they want, like we do now. But because of COVID we had to deliver. It helped in the long run, we got an idea of what people want and how to help them. The second all the restrictions are lifted, people could come in.”
He talks about the benefits of the project:
“We bring a lot of people together, different genders, different races, different religions. All people who probably wouldn’t be together in one area. People have friendships they wouldn’t have made otherwise. It just makes an overall close-knit community.”
This is especially the case at Christmas:
“You see peoples reactions, everyone’s happy and you know that people are gonna have a good Christmas period. Especially the single mothers who are already spending loads of money to make it a special day. Because of the hampers they now don’t have to worry about food.”
But he is worried about the future:
“I hope we’re able to keep running. At one point we were a bit worried, then we got quite a big donation that really helped us keep going. We’re trying to keep the base offer the same. But it gets increasingly hard not to make cuts to what we give. Food prices are doubling, tripling. I’m sure other food projects have the same problem. We’re all trying to get the same kind of funding for the same kind of people.”
You can find out more about David’s story in our blog, or read the survey findings in full.
How you can help
Donate time, food and money to support your local project.
Can your businesses or organisations provide funding and donations? Join our Food SOS programme.
Emergency Food Network Report 2024
For the latest, read the full 2024 report or look at the summary.
