“It’s lovely to know that every Monday we get a nice big box full of stuff from FareShare Sussex & Surrey”
Just a stone’s throw away from Eastbourne city center and its picturesque seafront, the bright green signage of a corner building catches your eye. The contrasting white letters announce the presence of Seaside Community Hub. In front of the store, there is a free “help yourself” table, with yellow stickered loaves of bread and an assortment of surplus vegetables that anyone is welcome to take from.
Originally established in 2017 as a space offering free training and skill development for people seeking employment, the hub has since evolved into a community fridge to provide its local customers with affordable food. Sue Morris, a trustee of Seaside, told us about how the community fridge works:
“We started off opening once a week in the middle of the pandemic, then twice a week, and now in the last six months three days a week. It’s got increasingly popular since the cost-of-living crisis.”
Their Hub has been a lifeline for many in their community with 40-50 people using their services every day, often people are queueing outside and around the corner waiting for it to open.
“People come from all walks of life: young families; Ukrainian refugees; and older people wanting to buy, for example, just two potatoes and two carrots. We get lots of people in temporary accommodation; Eastbourne borough council’s policy is that we don’t have homeless people, so they get put in hotels. But, obviously, this means they don’t have cooking facilities.”
Making food affordable is important for the volunteers so they charge a small fee of £2 for 10 items, which isn’t enforced, making exceptions for items like cans of soup. One customer, who has been using the services to feed her husband, two kids, two international students, and dog, said:
“It’s really helpful with making money go a little bit further with things that have really gone up in price and which I couldn’t normally buy. It’s been necessary in the past few months. It’s meant that we can get a few extra bits that can really help make things a little more fun.”
As one of the recipients of our new chest freezers, Sue told us how invaluable it has been for them to manage food levels across the week, ensuring people get a fair choice of food. FareShare Sussex & Surrey supply good quality food that otherwise would have gone to waste. It includes lots of bread and fresh vegetables, and they’ve even started to receive food from KFC through FareShare Go.
The Hub also provides a warm space where people can come to use their computers and access important services like government forms and ID photos. The couple pictured on the right visit the Hub at least once a week to shop and to enjoy the social side of the space. The woman is a full time carer for her husband who is living with dementia, so she gets a bit of a break during their visit as he happily sits and chats away whilst she shops.
“The first couple of times when I came in I felt uncomfortable, I’ve never been one to ask for help. Coming here they make you feel so welcome. They’ve got some little cakes and treats for afternoon tea, they’re too expensive in the shops”.
The Hub’s volunteers work tirelessly to make sure that all the food is distributed to those in need, and to ensure that everyone feels welcome and valued. As one of the Hub’s volunteers said, “We do this because we want to help our community. We’re not here to make money. We’re here to help people.”