M&S Hastings

Bexhill Community Church known as Living Word church, is a Christian charitable organisation, affiliated with Assemblies of God (AOG). As a church we strongly believe that part of our Christian duty is to share the love of God with people in Bexhill-on-Sea. We aim to do this in a tangible way within our community by serving, giving and trying to meet needs as they arise. Some of the ways in which we support our local community include: Visiting care homes entertaining the elderly. Hosting street parties building relationships within the community. Data collection to understand the needs of, and to provide help for our community. Giving parental advise to families and general life skills advise to young people. Pastoral home visits that provide practical input & emotional support. Running Individual & family therapy by a qualified Professional Psychotherapy Counsellor. Also alleviating poverty & food waste through our ‘Community Giveaway Initiative’. Running ‘Giveaways’ where people come and collect food products, clothing, toiletries, bakery and grocery items at our church hall. We collect, then distribute items free of charge to anyone in need in the community - the elderly, families, migrants & refugees, the homeless etc. Those most in need are identified through word of mouth, needs based individual assessment, referrals from JobcentrePlus & links with local charities. We provide limited home distribution of grocery and food to vulnerable & isolated members of the community on the streets or in their homes. Giveaways are becoming hugely popular with numbers growing at each session. We had a feature in the local Bexhill News & they ran regular ads of our Giveaways, examples of which are posted on our website or Facebook page. Our other initiative include establishing Hoops Legacy Basketball Project. A mentoring programme for the community involving coaching young people/adults from age 5years+ to develop their health/fitness; also to build self esteem and team work skills.

Our mission is the relief of poverty among the street homeless/rough sleepers and homeless through the provision of items to support basic needs such as sleeping bags, ground sheets, survival sheets, blankets, clothing, food and toiletries. We also aim to improve the individual’s welfare through our welfare and advocacy team.We endeavour to prevent harm to health by referring to emergency and similar services as and when necessary throughout Hastings, Bexhill, St. Leonards, Eastbourne and Lewes. We provide a satellite food bank delivering in excess of 200 food bags a week to rough sleepers and the vulnerably housed homeless. We also have a baby bank and a Vegan bank plus our Homestart scheme, set up to provide those in emergency and temporary accommodation who often have nothing, not even a kettle. We provide these items. We work closely with our local Women's refuges and emergency accommodation hostels and provide books and toys to the children.

Every Thursday lunchtime, Sustenance's volunteers prepares and serves a nutritious three-course meal and a bag of grocery shopping to local people in Hastings and St Leonards experiencing food poverty. We prepare and cook the meals and fill shopping bags with quality surplus produce from local supermarkets and restaurants. We are passionate about reducing food waste, addressing food poverty, championing healthy eating and supporting the community. May 2021 till Jan 2026; 😃 handed out 10,181 full bags of shopping 😃 served 8807 three-course nutritious meals 😃 saved nearly 95.83 tonnes of surplus food from landfill 😃 saved 268+ tonnes of CO2 from going into the atmosphere