Foodbank and Pantry available for those facing food poverty in Mid Sussex as a result of the fuel crisis

Burgess Hill Community Foodbank saw demand for its services raise substantially during the pandemic.

A spokesman said: “We are concerned, with the ongoing fuel crisis especially as we move to the colder months, that we will have another increase in clients as people have even less money to spend on food.

“What we would like to remind our community, is that we are here to support you if you are struggling. Our electronic vouchers can be acquired from many agencies (the list is on our website), including Burgess Hill Town Council Help Point. With a voucher, you can just drop into our main premises (85, Church Walk, Burgess Hill) which is open on Tue & Thurs 11am-1pm and you will be given 3 days’ worth of food. For further details or information on our distribution in Hassocks or Hurstpierpoint, please see our website: https://burgesshillfoodbank.org.uk/”

This week also saw the opening of the Burgess Hill Pantry, which aims to tackle food poverty.

Joseph Foster is deputy leader of Burgess Hill Town Council and chair of Burgess Hill Pantry. He said it is ‘very much needed’ because of rising energy prices and expects demand to rise when people feel the effect of the energy price rise, and a drop in Universal Credit.

“If you were struggling a bit, just about alright, that’s enough to throw you into real trouble,” he said. “Food is one of the things that people tend to have a little bit more flexibility to cut down on. You cut down on your rent and you’re going to become homeless. You might need your car to get to work. Food, there’s flexibility there, but it means people eating really badly. It means people not eating at all, skipping meals, kids going without food before they get to school.”

He added: “Absolutely we’re expecting thigs to get worse, sadly, not better, which obviously is what we’re here for, to try and help people. It’s an unhappy confluence of lots of different things coming together.”

Last week the Mid Sussex Times joined with its sister titles in JPIMedia to launch our campaign Keep Us Warm This Winter, which was this week backed by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.