Brighton and Hove Council pledges £30,000 for food appeal

The council is matching the sum and contributing an additional £30,000 to the appeal.

The council is working with the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership to support more than 50 local community volunteer groups across the city providing food parcels and meals to residents struggling to get food.

Requests for help from food banks have more than trebled since the start of the outbreak and the community response is proving a lifeline for many.

The additional money raised through the appeal means the food partnership can bulk buy more food and essential items for food banks and community groups to continue this vital work.

This is how some of the money raised has been used to support residents so far: Food banks are giving out more than 1400 parcels a week – up from around 400 a week before the outbreak. The food partnership has bulk purchased £3,617 of food, including pasta, rice, tinned fish, milk, and eggs, which has been passed on to food banks, projects making meals, and used to make food parcels. Ten sacks of carrots, five sacks of onions and 20 sacks of potatoes from local farms have been shared out £7,500 has been passed on to partner projects to buy supplies of food.

The food partnership hub has made 80 parcels which have delivered directly to people's doors by volunteer and council drivers.