Subject: Foodbank-Free City — From Parcels to Community Support Hubs
Date of meeting: 26 March 2026
Proposer: Councillor De Oliveira
Seconder: Councillor Hill
Ward(s) affected: All
Notice of Motion
This council notes:
1. Reliance on food banks is driven by low incomes, high living costs, and gaps in statutory support.
2. Emergency food parcels cannot be a permanent substitute for social security, housing security and properly funded public services.
3. The city’s community food organisations have the trust and reach to support a transition to dignified, non-stigmatising support.
4. Food is a matter of dignity and social rights, not charity or “deservingness”.
5. Organisations committed to end food poverty such as the Child Poverty Action Group and the Trussell Trust have stated that a reduction in food banks should be sought by prioritising cash-first support, income maximisation, and access to services.
This council resolves to:-
1. Support the principle of achieving the goal of a Foodbank-Free Brighton & Hove, meaning an end to routine dependence on emergency food parcels through higher incomes and statutory support.
2. Request officers to consider how local food banks and community food organisations can be supported to develop a transition plan to transform participating sites into Community Support Hubs that combine dignified food access with warm handovers into advice, benefits, housing, debt, health and safeguarding support.
3. Request officers to consider cash-first and other advice routes where these are available in preference to food bank referral
4. Request officers to bring a report to Cabinet within six months, setting out delivery steps, role boundaries (so volunteers are not substitutes for statutory services), and simple measures of progress to achieve the above ambitions.