East Suffolk Council
Providing food for those in need
A new food support scheme has launched in Beccles to provide those in need with hot meals and drinks.
Inspired by the successful Thin Ice project in Lowestoft, Beccles Comfort Food has launched to provide free hot meals and drinks to households who are struggling with the cost of living. The scheme is part of a wider set of cost of living support projects being developed by East Suffolk Council.
This Beccles scheme is funded by East Suffolk councillors Caroline Topping, Sarah Plummer and Elfrede Brambley-Crawshaw and Suffolk County Councillor for Beccles, Peggy McGregor, and is voucher-based, meaning a household must be issued with a voucher from a referral hub in the town. Once the household has the voucher, they can redeem the voucher at local cafés.
The need for the project was identified after local organisations experienced a growing need for services, which is expected to rise with increasing energy and food costs. Having seen the success of the Thin Ice project in Lowestoft, Beccles stakeholders expressed an interest in adopting a similar model in Beccles, Worlingham, Barnby and North Cove.
Cllr Caroline Topping, who is also Chair of the Beccles Community Hub said: “We councillors are receiving more and more concerning enquiries of households who are not able to feed themselves properly and at the Community Hub our volunteers are talking to more and more people who are describing the really difficult decisions they are having to make regards how they spend their increasingly shrinking budgets. It is difficult as councillors to know how to make best use of the Enabling Funding we have access to, but making sure our communities have food is a basic human necessity.”
The local community is now being invited to help support this initiative by spreading the message to those in need and if they can, by providing a small donation at the Beccles Community Hub on Blyburgate. Donations will help to make the scheme sustainable.
If Comfort Food would help your household with the cost of living, please get in touch with East Suffolk Communities Officer Sam Kenward at sam.kenward@eastsuffolk.gov.uk or leave a message at 01502 523119.
East Suffolk Council understands the pressures faced by many people today and is working closely with partners and stakeholders to ensure support is available to help ease the squeeze for households in East Suffolk. See our website for more: www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/squeeze