We are traveling afar to work with community support networks across Sussex and beyond 

Our warehouse is based near Chichester, West Sussex, but that doesn’t mean we only stay local! We regularly travel as far as Bristol, London and Kent in one of our 7 refrigerated vans- just a little detour from Chichester! 

One of our favourite journeys is taking a van full of food to Hastings every week - where we deliver to a network of recipients through Hastings Voluntary Action (however most of you will mostly remember Hastings from history lessons!). The work that our recipients do is phenomenal and crucial support for their community.  

Hastings Voluntary Action, runs as a food distribution hub, working with eight different organisations. This includes projects providing meals for the homeless, meal parcels for families, two community pantry schemes, two food banks and a fruit and veg bag scheme for a housing association. This means they support over a thousand people every week, which is unbelievable! 

The prevention of food waste is very much a team effort, and Hastings Voluntary Action is no exception. By allowing organisations to come into the hub and choose which foods are relevant to their projects, they stop produce remaining on the shelves, sending it to places where it is most likely to be used up.  

Our journeys to Hastings have been made possible thanks to Hastings Direct, who have supported UKHarvest in delivering food to Hastings throughout the pandemic. We have been contributing food to their cause, allowing for these 8 organisations to feed additional families and individuals.  As an added bonus, not having to buy in fresh fruit and veg every week saves them money, which can be channeled into helping the community in a variety of different ways!  

Since the start of their partnership, there has also been an increased sense of collaboration across Hastings, with organisations offering staff time to help run the food hub- even setting up a WhatsApp food sharing group! Communication and teamwork is crucial in a sustainable future, and we are delighted that Hastings have formed such a robust food network.  

As always, food education plays a critical role this future, and Food Partners across Hastings voted it as being one of the top 3 priorities that they wanted the network to focus on, in creating their 1-3 year Hastings Food Action plan. 

We too are providing food education and have set up courses specifically for East Sussex Residents! So if you’re new to cooking or need to build confidence in the kitchen, click here.