Bognor Regis charities fight food waste with free giveaways

EcoSwap CIC, The Jeneses Arts and Community Centre and the Bognor Regis Help box have joined the fight against food waste by hosting a series of free food giveaways throughout the town.
Steve Brunton (Centre right) with Jeneses Church building Barry Jones (OBE), Jenny Jones (OBE) and John Wick (centre left), care taker at the Jeneses Centre.Steve Brunton (Centre right) with Jeneses Church building Barry Jones (OBE), Jenny Jones (OBE) and John Wick (centre left), care taker at the Jeneses Centre.
Steve Brunton (Centre right) with Jeneses Church building Barry Jones (OBE), Jenny Jones (OBE) and John Wick (centre left), care taker at the Jeneses Centre.

The give aways, which take place throughout the week at each of the participating venues, accept food donations from supermarkets, local businesses and members of the community and give them to those who need them most.

Stock varies from fresh bread and groceries to back-of-the-cupboard staples like pasta and beans, but anyone who needs something is free to take it without filling out a form, getting a referral or registering their details. Because this is as much about preventing food waste as it is keeping people fed, the charities remain as accessible as possible.

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It’s a unique way of distributing food, but Ecoswap’s Gemma Hawkins says it makes it that much easier to get food into the hands of those who really need it. She said: “There’s a lot of people that we’re finding that don’t want to ask for help or feel embarrassed. They can just come in and just take the bits they need and they don’t need to give any details. I think there’s still quite a lot of stigma attached to asking for help and there’s a lot of people, especially through the pandemic, that have been able to afford a luxury lifestyle in the past but are now really struggling. And there’s that shame of having to put your hand out and ask for a bit of help. So we make sure it stays completely anonymous.”

Alongside accepting donations from members of the community and local business, EcoSwap also accept weekly donations from FareShare, an online service which takes excess food from supermarkets and delivers it to charities all over the country. 
The three venues- Ecoswap, Jeneses and the Bognor Regis Helpbox- often work together, swapping donations and co-ordinating their response to get as much food out to as many people as possible. Steve Brunton, who delivers excess food from supermarkets to charities in the area as part of his work with The Knights Templar, often acts as a liaison, co-ordinating the three venues in order to make sure the right food winds up in the right places. For him, that co-ordination helps the charities reach more people and save more food. He said: “For us, it was a matter of ‘We’re all doing the same thing, we’re all about feeding people and reducing food wastage, so let’s do it together’.”

To keep up to date with the Jeneses Arts and Community Centre, EcoSwap and the Bognor Regis Help Box, and to find out when they are hosting their give-aways, visit them on Facebook.

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