About our foodbank

Crowborough Foodbank is a project founded in January 2014 by local churches and community groups working together towards stopping hunger in our local area. It is part of the Trussell Trust’s network of more than 400 foodbanks across the UK.

The Trussell Trust is a charity founded on Christian principles but works with people of all faiths and none. The charity’s mission, which Crowborough Foodbank embraces, is to bring communities together to end hunger and poverty in the UK by providing compassionate, practical help whilst challenging injustice.

People are often surprised that, in a town like Crowborough, there is a need for a Foodbank. Sadly the perception that we live in an area of affluence, where poverty and social need does not exist, is quite wrong. Poverty is not restricted to the inner cities; family crisis does not only happen in urban areas. There are families in Crowborough and Rotherfield who are struggling to put food on the table. For people on low incomes, a sudden crisis – redundancy, benefit delay or even an unexpected bill – can mean going hungry. Figures published in 2019 showed 21 per cent of children in Wealden were living in poverty.

We have collection points for donations in various locations in the town, and a team of more than 40 volunteers who help collect and sort the food, as well as meeting with families who need our help. Those who need our support will encounter only friendship and practical help, and certainly no judgement. In our first year alone, thanks to donations and our volunteers, we helped feed more than 400 local people. In 2015 that figure increased to more than 550. By 2021 the number was up to 4,783.

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