Help
At the outset of the COVID-19 lockdown, St Peter’s and our family of Brighton churches (St Matthias and St Cuthman’s) launched a comprehensive response to meet the changing needs of our city. To achieve this, we have set up a central logistics hub, in complementary partnership with local government and other agencies, charities and churches, which provides a range of aid; serving food and essential supplies to a large number of vulnerable people across our city.
How we are helping?
Our #LoveYourNeighbour campaign is running throughout Brighton. We currently deliver food parcels to nearly 800 of our neighbours within the city, which we anticipate will continue to grow. These weekly parcels contain pre-prepared meals, preserved and fresh food such as fruit, vegetables, dairy and bread, as well as other treats, flowers and handwritten cards and required toiletries. Shops and restaurants across the city such as Cook, Waitrose, Higgidy, Spade & Spoon, SuperDoux, The Caring Foundation – made up of Bills, The Ivy and Annabels, have been generously giving St Peter’s the essentials needed to fill these hampers. Nearly 600 of these food parcels are delivered to 25 hostels some of which are now temporary homes for many people across Brighton and Hove, including the guests who usually join us for Safehaven Mother and Baby and Safehaven Women. Alongside these deliveries, we also continue to provide a food drop-in service (with social distancing) in the St Peter’s car park on a Wednesday and Saturday where other Safehaven guests can pick up a takeaway food parcel.
All this new activity has seen us turn our ever-versatile church building into a food and supplies distribution centre, with fridges, shelves and shopping trolleys and all manned by a growing group of volunteers.
Across the city, Foodbank at St Cuthman’s has also been hard at work in our efforts to meet the growing demand for emergency food boxes, quadrupling its operations to support 120 residents from the Whitehawk area and offering deliveries to the most in need. Click here to find out more.
How you can help?
Are you a local business? We still need items to put in our food hampers and any donations of frozen/chilled ready meals for microwaves, bread, milk, eggs and chocolate would be particularly well received.
Are you a Brighton or Hove local? We need as many people as possible to help us with these vital services. We especially need help packing hampers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and delivery drivers who are available on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
If you feel that you would like to provide support in some way, do please get in touch by clicking on our Give Help button above.
Donate
£10 could provide two freshly-cooked hot meals delivered to a vulnerable person.
£25 could provide a single-person weekly hamper with ingredients for nutritious meals, fruit and veg, and store-cupboard items.
£50 could provide books, toys and activities so children can play and learn at home.
£100 could contribute to a hamper with essential meal ingredients, toiletries and nappies for a family of four.
Do you need help?
We want to be able to identify our neighbours who are in need of our support and assistance so please do let us know if there is any way that we can help you. You can get in touch by calling the St Peter’s office on 01273 698182.
It is so important to be able to show our community the love and support that we all need at this time. Recent feedback from a YMCA-managed hostel has been so positive: ‘We are so grateful to St Peter’s Brighton and their Love Your Neighbour campaign. One of our clients said it was ‘the most thoughtful yet competent care package’ he had ever received! We are definitely feeling the love, it is heartwarming to be a part of such a community’.
