Cost of living crisis: Crawley food bank fights back against poverty from a broom cupboard

Free Shop Crawley is based in The Bewbush Centre and provides food, toiletries and baby essentials without any associated costs. The ‘supermarket’ is open to the public and people can refer themselves or be referred to use the service. The food bank was set-up during the Covid-19 crisis and now has an important role in providing help during the cost of living crisis.

The foodbank not only provides a food and welfare service, but also is planning to support its clients through financial budgeting workshops and coffee mornings. Free Shop Crawley has been heavily supported by the community development team at Crawley Borough Council.

We sat down with the team from the food bank, who won a Crawley Community Award in 2021, to get their take on the cost of living crisis.

Free Shop Crawley co-founder and executive director Laura-Jane Wainwright said: “Before the cost of living crisis, we were getting ten referrals a week, now we are getting over 30 a week from self-referrals and agencies. It is impacting massively.

“One of the things that we are finding is that people don’t understand the crisis, so the education that is happening in the media is confusing to people. People are struggling to know how to support themselves and how to get through the crisis.

“We are having 30 referrals a week when we are already supporting 600 people a week. On top of that, we have to support more and more people. The shop is getting less money for food, so we have to reach out to companies to help support our work. Some families in Crawley are choosing between ‘heating or eating’ and many children in Crawley are going to school with uniforms and shoes that don't fit them.”

Claire said: “There are so many ways people can volunteer. We need donations of food and clothing. It doesn’t have to be just monthly donations of money but there are other ways too.

“Skilled volunteering is really important too. So if you have a skill that you think can support us, be brave and come forward. It is really important as most charities can’t afford to hire professional people, but need them. To offer your skills is really important.”

Free Shop Crawley offers more than just food. The charity has teamed up with LPK Learning, Crawley Borough Council, Social Prescribing, and Crawley Wellbeing to offer financial workshops and coffee mornings.

Lucy Bear from LPK Learning said: “Since March and April time, we have been working closely with Crawley Free Shop to deliver our ‘clanger workshops’, which is a well-being programme that enables people to get together, discuss different aspects of life and think about how they can improve their wellbeing.

“Recently, we have been offering anxiety programmes to our clients as the cost of living crisis has caused huge amounts of anxiety. We have also been doing coffee mornings. As we speak, LPK is implementing emergency energy crisis workshops. We can’t work miracles but we can all work together.”

We spoke to the leader of Crawley Borough Council, Michael Jones about the crisis that charities are facing.

Mr Jones said: “Crawley Borough Council is extremely committed to helping the voluntary and charitable sector across the borough. We are proud of the significant resources we give to the strategic and small grants that are available for local groups.

"We are under no illusion that the increasing financial pressures on people are having a significant impact on the demands of local strategies and we stand ready to support them. The council is in the process of setting up warm spaces for people and look to work closely with the voluntary and charitable sector in giving a really strong offer to local residents in these difficult times.”

See more: Cost of living crisis: Crawley pet sanctuary ‘hasn’t received donations for about 4 months’, Cost of living crisis: Crawley autism charity under threat of closure just when ‘the community needs something like this the most’, Chichester College Group strikes: Crawley College staff walk out due to ‘low pay amid the cost of living crisis’

If you would like to find out more, please visit: https://freeshopcrawley.com/