Hastings and Rother Furniture Service

Fighting Essential Furniture Poverty

HFS plays a crucial role in ensuring that the most vulnerable individuals have access to basic essentials. The demand for our services is higher than ever, so it is vital HFS be able to continue helping as many homes as we can. 

Our Vision – We believe every person across Hastings and Rother should have a bed to sleep on, a cooker to prepare basic meals with, and the essential furniture to create a safe, comfortable home. 

Our Mission – To help alleviate poverty by providing low-cost high-quality reused furniture and electrical goods to low-income households, in turn creating opportunities to enable individuals to improve their lives – while also diverting waste from landfill and reducing CO2e emissions. 

For almost 40 years, HFS has been committed to supplying low-cost furniture to low-income families. Despite furniture and white goods poverty lacking the same recognition as food or fuel poverty, it remains a harsh reality for many families in our society. 

For example, without a means to cook food (cooker, microwave, etc.), families relying on food banks can't safely prepare the food they are given. Without a fridge to store fresh produce, many families end up throwing away donated food that has perished or, even worse, trying to eat rotten food. Without a bed each to sleep on, families end up sharing mattresses or even sleeping on the cold floor. 

New research has highlighted that over a million children are currently enduring inadequate sleeping conditions. Families in crisis are having to prioritise essentials such as food, heating, and electricity over things like replacing mouldy bedding or fixing a broken bed. 

What we're doing to help families in poverty: 

By providing low-cost high-quality furniture, white goods, and essential starter packs (including bedding, cooking utensils, toiletries, etc.), we were able to support 4200 low-income families last year. 

We are also proud to be part of the circular economy and we aim to be at the forefront in tackling climate change across the region; to inspire and energise our community to reduce C02e emissions and be part of the solution
for Net Zero.

Choosing pre-loved furniture isn't just about getting a great bargain, it's also a wonderful way to help prevent waste and carbon emissions. 

We are all familiar with the concept of recycling and that’s certainly a better option than sending our furniture, white goods and homewares straight to landfill – but even recycling comes at an economic and environmental cost, as we need to generate energy in order to break down and recycle these products. 

Reusing is even more effective than recycling because it extends the life cycles of our products at no extra cost to the planet. 

Normalising purchasing quality second-hand goods aids in interrupting cycles of overproduction and consumption. It's really that simple.