Food banks and other emergency food providers are having to shrink the food parcels they offer and many worry they will have to close in the next six months if funding doesn’t increase as demand outstrips supply, a snapshot of food need in Brighton and Hove reveals.
The 2023 Brighton and Hove Emergency Food Network (EFN) Annual Survey shows 6,441 people in the city rely on emergency food services every week – up 25% from 2022. Three in 10 recipients of food help are children.
And the continuing cost-of-living crisis is creating a new demand for emergency food from people in work and students. These add to the vulnerable groups, such as elderly people, those experiencing ill health, disability and mental health issues, and refugees and asylum seekers, who make up many of the beneficiaries of the city’s food banks, community cafes, lunch clubs, pantries and other emergency food support services.
As food costs continue to rise and donations to food banks fall, the growing pressures on emergency food suppliers are placing many services at the brink of survival. One food project worker said:
“If we don’t take on new referrals the money might take us to December. Unfortunately, we are getting more referrals and these are families with children which I find difficult to turn down.”
The EFN survey, which is coordinated by Brighton & Hove Food Partnership (BHFP), showed:
- Emergency food providers spend £15,800 in total, per week, to top-up dwindling stock levels – up 59% from 2022.
- Nearly half the city’s emergency food providers report insufficient funds to see them into 2024.
- Two-thirds of people return for food help week-in week-out because of ongoing need – up from 52% in 2022.
- The proportion of in-work and student beneficiaries seeking help has also increased.
Each year the EFN survey offers a snapshot of food need in one week of the summer in Brighton and Hove. This year 46 emergency food suppliers answered questions on their services.
Twenty-six of these suppliers said food and/or financial donation levels have dropped, 24 said that stock levels were significantly down and 23 reported having to dip into financial reserves. The survey showed cooking oil, meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, and eggs to be in particularly high demand.
Vanessa O’Shea, manager for BHFP’s community food team said:
“Food poverty in Brighton is becoming the new normal and that is simply unacceptable. The level of expenditure EFN members are enduring is unsustainable. National and local governments, employers and educational bodies all need to wake up, face their responsibilities and take action now.”
To try and help the EFN through the difficult winter period, BHFP has set up the Food SOS Harvest Festival campaign and is asking schools and businesses in the city to coordinate donations to food banks, charities and social supermarkets in their area.
Case study: Scarlet*
Scarlet arrived in Brighton to study but she hit problems when her low-income family found they were unable to provide the financial support they had hoped. Less than a year into her university course, Scarlet was in financial difficulties – and she had missed the deadline to apply for financial support from the university.
She found herself work as a care provider but the zero-hours contract she ended up on resulted in very little paid employment each day. As she had to be available to her employer, she could not look for a second job.
Hungry and worried that she would lose her rented accommodation, she turned to the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership enquiries team, who directed her toward the Real Junk Food Project Bevendean Food Hub, which stocks surplus food that anyone can take, paying whatever they can afford.
Scarlet said: “I called my mum afterwards and I didn’t tell her because I was so ashamed of how the situation had panned out, but I said there are really people looking out for all of us.”
* The name of this student beneficiary has been changed to preserve privacy.
You can find out more about Scarlet’s story in our blog, or read the survey findings in full.
For further information and for press interviews: Contact Vanessa O’Shea, Manager – Community Food Team. Email: vanessa@bhfood.bozboz.dev mobile: 07470 440918
Brighton & Hove Emergency Food Network is a collaboration of food banks and other organisations providing food to those in need because of food poverty.
The Food Partnership has been surveying emergency food providers in the city for the past 10 years and undertook its latest survey in July-August 2023.
