Community co-op calls for council funding for meals on wheels

East Brighton Food Cooperative (EBFC) has called for long-term council funding for its meal delivery service.

The volunteer-run kitchen sends out freshly made meals to the most vulnerable, housebound and isolated in the city, serving between 80 and 300 people at different points in the year.

Its latest impact report says a staggering 58 per cent of their recipients felt their health would have become worse if it were not for the meal service.

The report says: “Providing this essential community citywide delivered meal service for the council without adequate council funding is not sustainable.

“We are the only contact some of our customers have with the outside world, taking pressure off Brighton and Hove City Council’s social services and other departments.”

Bryan Coyle, EBFC founder and joint CEO, said that the only way the initiative continues is through long-term provision from the council, alongside the food donations and volunteers they receive from the community.

He said: “What we do is too important a service to be left to unpaid volunteers.

“We’ve got such dedicated and hardworking volunteers but no one else is providing this service, and with 4000 people in Brighton and Hove suffering from malnutrition, we expect our numbers to go up again in winter.”

The meal service operates seven days a week across the whole city, from Saltdean to Portslade and relies on volunteers, some of whom were once recipients of the meal service.

Mr Coyle said that there are currently more recipients in Hove than in Whitehawk, showing that the meal delivery service is still needed.

He said: “It’s amazing how after just two weeks how they look, and it shows the health benefits of proper healthy and nutritious meals.”

The impact report states that the meal service benefits those shielding from covid, those with physical disabilities or conditions and those unable to afford to buy food.

Their survey also highlights how without the meal service, 37 per cent of recipients would go hungry, 32 percent would forget to eat and 21 per cent would be unable to live independently.

Volunteer Janet said: “We work out the menus with what we get from donations, with meat and vegetarian options, and we try to respond as immediately as we can to people who need help.”

The EBFC also hosts lunch clubs, cookery classes and outdoor events so that “people can experience the whole journey of food from seed to plate.”

The impact report says: “Early intervention of the kind EBFC provide with our meals and care improves the health and wellbeing outcomes of the most vulnerable and isolated, saving money, resources and most importantly, health.”