Communities Fund has provided £335 of match funding
The Sky's The Limit
Brighton, England, United Kingdom
Your donation unlocks match funding
Boost your impact
Your donation unlocks match funding
Aim
We will promote messaging in our community about reducing food waste; develop our community garden; and feed people affordably with surplus
Who are we, and what is our project about?
When food is wasted and sent to landfill it has a significant impact on the climate due to the generation of methane. Food waste is a profligate use of the earth's resources when there are many people going hungry.
The Real Junk Food Project Brighton intercepts food before it is sent to waste. This is food that comes mainly from supermarkets who no longer feel able to sell it even though it is perfectly good to eat. We then offer the food to our community at a shop and three cafes across Brighton in return for pay-as-you-feel donations. In this way, we can feed people regardless of their ability to pay.
In 2025, we intercepted over 100 tonnes of food and served over 36000 people.
Our community
Many of the people we support depend on benefits, suffer from mental health issues, are disabled, are members of the homeless community, are asylum seekers and refugees. They are unable to do a big shop in a supermarket or eat out in the city's cafes. They depend on us to eat healthily.
We don't just offer them food. We get them involved in our community garden where we grow food using compost that is created from our own food waste.
We promote messaging around the subject of food waste: encouraging people to prepare meals economically making full use of what's already in the fridge.
We run classes to teach people about fermenting and pickling to widen knowledge about how best to give food a longer life particularly when the seasons mean that food is plentiful.
Our Sky's The Limit Fundraiser?
Meet Jacq Sage who is the manager at our food hub in Bevendean. She volunteers there to help with the unpacking of food, serving customers, and managing the team. She has volunteered to take part in a fundraising event which will see her abseiling down the i360 on Sunday 28 June. It's been organised by Focus Foundation who have given a number of local charities the opportinity to raise funds. It would be great if you will support Jacq in this spectacular fundraising effort.
How we’ll spend the money raised
The project has significant costs which include rent, staff wages, utilities, vehicles, insurance and so on. The pay-as-you-feel contributions to not meet all our costs. We calculate that we need £3 to feed each person we serve.
We will also use funds to develop our community garden which enables the project to link in with people living near our cafe.
We plan to run special cookery sessions in our cafe to involve asylum seekers and refugee community to exchange ideas about food: they will cook their national dishes whilst at the same time gaining a greater understanding of the issues of food waste and climate change.
How you can help
There are two simple ways to get involved and support our project:
1. Make a donation
Every pledge gets us closer to our goal. Early support can help build momentum and inspire others to give too.
2. Spread the word
Share our project with friends, family and your wider network. The more people we reach, the more likely we are to succeed.
Communities Fund Employee Giving has provided £120 of match funding
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 16th July 2026 at 4:43pm