Brighton based OneFamily has announced support for four local organisations that help the most vulnerable people in the city.
The projects that will be benefitting are the Brighton Food Bank, the Black & Minority Ethic Community Partnership (BMECP), the Hangleton & West Blatchington Food Bank and the Brighton & Hove Cost of Living Crisis Campaign.
The financial services company has awarded each organisation £2,000 and will also be offering hands-on help through employee volunteering and the sharing of skills, networks and experience.
Teddy Nyahasha, the CEO of OneFamily said, “The cost-of-living crisis has led to a rapid growth in the call on food banks and it’s devastating to see the impact of rising costs on the wellbeing of families with young children, the vulnerable and the infirm.
“Helping local people is very important to us – it’s been our focus for many years – so we’re pleased to support these organisations and their vital work.
“We’re keen to build partnerships with all these charities and campaigns because, for us, it’s not just about handing money over and believing the job is done. We’ll be investing time, practical support and advice that we hope will have a real impact on the lives of local people.
Juliet Ssekitolko of BMECP said, “I want to express my gratitude, and to highlight that donations such as these are hugely appreciated, helping us to feed over seventy adults and fifty children on a weekly basis, as well as providing them with other essentials such as toiletries.”
Andy Wolage of Hangleton & West Blatchington Food Bank said, “We are very grateful to receive this donation from OneFamily.
“It is clear that food poverty has increased dramatically over the last 10 years, and particularly in recent months. This donation will help us to provide emergency food parcels for those in need in our local area, paying for fresh fruit and vegetables and dairy produce, all things which are versatile and relatively inexpensive to cook.
“We thank OneFamily for their valuable donation to help those in need.”
Helen Starr-Keddle of the Brighton & Hove Cost of Living Crisis Campaign said, “Thank you so much for the generous donation. Money raised via our cost-of-living campaign is going to buy food and toiletries for projects in the Emergency Food Network, who feed people in need. Sadly, we are seeing demand soar, from people who are reaching crisis with no food in their cupboards and often no electricity at home. Donations like this are a vital lifeline for families and individuals struggling this winter in Brighton & Hove.”
Brighton Food Bank
An independent Christian food bank that has people referred to it from over seventy organisations from across the city. It serves over 100 households per week who are facing a financial crisis. Their clients are provided with food and essential items so that they can use the little money that they have to pay their housing costs, enabling them to remain in their accommodation and not become homeless.
In 2021 it provided over 5,000 boxes of food and helped more than 1,200 people.
It listens to the needs of its clients, which are often complex, and can support them to find solutions to their situations or point them to other organisations that may be able to help. Its priority is to enable people to no longer need its help.
BMECP Centre Food Bank
The BMECP food bank provides emergency food parcels for people in crisis who are living in the city. Each parcel contains non-perishable and nutritionally balanced food.
Hangleton & West Blatchington Food Bank
Formed by members of two local Christian churches, St George’s RC Church and St Peter’s. This charity aims to support members of the local community who are in food poverty or crisis situations. It supports around fifteen families every week, providing tinned food, toiletries, store cupboard items and fresh fruit and vegetables.
It provides food, but also aims to enable people to be able to live a decent quality of life – which may mean supporting them until they are back on their feet.
Brighton & Hove Cost of Living Crisis Campaign
This is a local appeal to help people in poverty in the city with their food and fuel costs through vouchers and food parcels. It also provides energy-efficient electrical goods such as electric blankets and slow cookers to enable people to keep well.
Households most likely to need its help are those where someone in the home has a disability and need to keep their utilities on not just for warmth and cooking but for health equipment such as hoists, nebulisers and fridges for medication.
justgiving.com/campaign/BHCostofLivingCrisis
Notes to Editors
About OneFamily
OneFamily is a customer-owned financial services company that offers lifetime ISAs, lifetime mortgage advice, junior ISAs, child trust funds, bonds and over 50s life cover.
We have 45 years’ experience of being a trusted provider of financial solutions, with 2 million customers and £7.3 billion in funds under management at the end of 2021.
We are the UK’s biggest child trust fund provider, holding over 25% of the market.
OneFamily Advice provides whole of market equity release advice for a fixed fee of £950. To help its customers it is not increasing its fee, despite inflationary pressures. It charges no advice fee to existing members of OneFamily.
Supporting our members and their communities
As a mutual, OneFamily is owned by its members for its members – and doing right by them is at the heart of our business.
We don’t have shareholders to pay dividends to, so we reinvest our profits to provide quality products and services for the benefit of our members. OneFamily has provided more than £4.75 million in grants since 2015 through its personal and community-based funding initiatives – supporting over 390 great causes and improving the lives of more than 3,200 people through our individual grants. Our community funding has supported dementia charities, homeless projects and provided work for young people with learning disabilities as well as funding projects such as the renovation of swimming pools and parks.
OneFamily customers can also apply for a Young Persons Education Grant of up to £250 to help them or someone, aged 15-19, they care about. They can be used for study materials, to travel costs or a new laptop.
For more information on how we support our members see:
onefamily.com/our-story/membership/education-grants/
onefamily.com/our-story/charity-partnerships/