Hastings foodbank opens town centre distribution centre

The Holy Trinity (HTH) Church, in Robertson Street, Hastings, will be offering crisis food provision – with support from the Hastings Foodbank – employment training and debt advice.

The projects are part of the nationwide Love Your Neighbour scheme – a partnership of 240 churches and more than 1,000 schools and community organisations across the UK.

The town centre church will be operating a distribution centre in partnership with Hastings Foodbank from Cambridge Hall on Wednesdays.

Sara Young, operations and food hub manager at HTH, said: “We’re so grateful to be working with Hastings Foodbank, tapping in to their skills and expertise to offer a distribution point in the heart of the town centre.

“We’d love to welcome any referrals. We’re open every Wednesday on Cambridge Rd, directly opposite ESK.”

Natalie Williams, community engagement director at King’s Church, added: “Since we opened Hastings Foodbank back in 2012, we have always hoped to have a town centre distribution centre.

“We are really pleased that through this partnership with HTH, we are now able to run Hastings Foodbank both from the Hastings Centre on Mondays and Fridays, and from HTH’s Cambridge Hall building on Wednesdays.

“This means Hastings Foodbank will be more accessible to local people who are referred to us because they are facing crisis situations.”

The project has also partnered with Resurgo to run Re-Work, a free six-session employability course delivered by Zoom. The course is aimed at anyone over 18 who is actively looking for work or has been made redundant as a result of Covid-19.

Re-Work starts on Tuesday, December 1 and runs until December 17.

The leader of that project, Jonathan Dolding, said: “The content is really interactive. It’s full of whole group, small group and individual tasks, all focussed around building confidence, being more resilient, putting together a great CV and preparing for online interviews.”

As for the debt advice side of the project, HTH will be signposting those that need guidance and help to the team a Hastings and St Leonards Christians Against Poverty (CAP).

Simon Larkin, Vicar at HTH said: “Since we arrived at HTH six years ago, it’s been a priority for us as a church to care for those who are most in need in our town. These three Love Your Neighbour projects really help us build on our established work of Safehaven Women and Men and continue working in partnership with the many fantastic support organisations in the local area.”