top of page

BrightStore gets national lottery boost

BrightStore has been awarded £10,000 in National Lottery funding to support its work to tackle food inequality in Brighton and Hove.

BrightStore gets national lottery boost

BrightStore has been awarded £10,000 in National Lottery funding to support its work to tackle food inequality in Brighton and Hove.


It will use the funding to for the rental costs of its stores and essential staff wages both vital to securing the long term sustainability and growth of the project. The social grocery store, which recently celebrated its first birthday, now has over 350 members across four stores in the city. 


Members who sign up to be part of the scheme get access to an affordable weekly shop of fresh fruit and veg and other essential groceries sourced mostly locally from surplus or donated food. 


Memberships are based on a ‘pay what you can afford’ principle and members help to run their local stores. 


The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest funder of community activity in the UK, will see a small salary paid to cover the administration role of the project which has grown from one to four stores in 12 months and provide secure storage for food at some of BrightStore’s venues. 


Rachel Pitts-Wicks, Founder of BrightStore, said: “We are delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. Now, thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to secure the long-term future of BrightStore. It will help improve the running of our stores, meaning that even more of our membership fees can go towards buying more food in bulk to protect us from any food shortage and increase our to support local growers and farmers. This is a really important of our mission to make local food systems in the city fairer and more resilient.”

bottom of page