Food bank hub opens in Crawley Town centre with the help from the local church community

St John’s Church, in partnership with The Easter Team (A Crawley Food Bank Partner), successfully launched their new food bank hub near the County Mall on Thursday, February 2.

The official opening of the new hub coincides with St John’s campaign to #Loveyourneighbour which brings together the local community in times of need.

This is especially important at the moment as a lot of people are experiencing difficulty due to rising costs of food and energy bills.

From speaking to people at the launch, it is understood that a lot of people using the existing food bank aren’t the type of people the public would expect.

A lot of the people using the service are hard-working families, who find themselves facing financial hardship because of the loss of jobs and reduced hours due to Covid-19.

This shows that a lot of people in Crawley have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic and Brexit.

The services that the hub provides aren’t just food related, but they also are able to help people in need of emergency funds for their electric and gas bills.

There were many people in attendance at the event including the High Sheriff of West Sussex, representatives from The County Mall and members of Crawley’s Christian faith community.

The building has been supplied by The County Mall, who have also provided an entry point to the hub through the shopping centre.

Member of staff from Easter Team John Lovemore said: “The Easter Team gives food to those in crisis in Crawley.

“We do it mainly from clients contacting us and coming here to collect their parcels. We also do fuel top ups for people with prepayment meters, who are struggling with their electric or gas bills.

“They can contact us for a fuel top up and if they have a smart meter we can do it remotely. We can’t do it on an unlimited basis but we are here to help people.

“We are supported by individuals and the churches of Crawley.”

Operation Manager of The Easter Team Su Parrish said: “Love Your Neighbour and The Easter Team have been working in partnership since the beginning of the Pandemic doing things like food parcels, delivery of the food and staff at the warehouse.

“Here we are offering food parcels and Love Your Neighbour will be providing the listening and signposting service. A lot of our clients come here to access both.

“Love Your Neighbour’s Listening and Signposting service helps people who are struggling and points them to the right services.

“We have absolutely seen an increase in the rise of people using our services because of the rise in energy and food bills. Our clients are usually the ones with the lowest incomes but pay the highest tariffs.

“We are anticipating that more people will be using our centre. 40 to 50 new clients a month, alot of them would never expect to use our services. They know how to budget, but everything is costing more.

“To access our services you can use our website: https://www.theeasterteam.org/, phone in as our lines are open on weekdays (Tuesdays to Fridays, 10pm to 2pm) or potentially come in.

“Our short assessments are non intrusive and are designed to see if we can signpost a client to the right service.

“People can volunteer with us by using our website and there is a form you can fill out.”

Social Mission & Love Your Neighbour Lead Liz Burston said: “I’m on the leadership team at St John’s and at the beginning of the Pandemic our Love Your Neighbour initiative would help people with their shopping, deliveries and offering emergency food parcels.

“So many people were isolating. We started it here in Crawley. St Johns kicked it off. Although we hold it, there are about 26 churches of different denominations that help here. We also have volunteers who aren't from churches.

“We have a team helping with the vaccinations programme in Maidenbower. We provide a whole host of services to the local community. We are working alongside The Easter Team to provide the signposting services.

“We have a lot of social missions going on in the community.”