Brighton Community Food Hub ended 2025 on a high, with record customer numbers and booming sales keeping the volunteers very busy throughout the year. At the start of 2026, this award winning, not-for-profit volunteer-run food relief charity began its fourth year of operation.

The Food Hub is now an integral part of the local community, supporting around 25,000 people in the Brighton area last year. It provides access to affordable food for individuals and families who are experiencing food insecurity, financial stress and hardship due to rising cost of living expenses.

With more than 350 items in-store, the Food Hub’s dedicated volunteers work very hard to offer the most cost-effective general grocery items, personal hygiene products and household cleaning products. The Food Hub’s prices are consistently 50-75% lower than the major supermarkets.

2025 highlights included:

• Traded for nine days in December and sold 375 food hampers and 8,258 food items
• 87,662 affordable food items sold during 2025
• Provided affordable food to approximately 25,000 people

All of this work was done by 22 dedicated volunteers who are committed to helping families who find themselves in need and are struggling to make ends meet.

Survey results are in

Community Need, a University of Tasmania report released in December 2022, showed that 51% of Tasmanian households had experienced food insecurity over the previous month (that’s 265,000 people), with this figure substantially worsening since the date of this report.

Many of the parents interviewed for this report suffered high stress levels and regularly missed meals so their children could eat. Statistics from Brighton Community Food Hub show that 45% of people attending the Food Hub are regularly worried about not having enough food to feed their families. They are buying much less meat and fresh produce, buying food on credit, and seeking food from family members and other social networks to survive.

Food Hub volunteers believe everyone deserves access to affordable, nutritious food regardless of their circumstances, employment status or social standing. Providing affordable food for individuals and families is critical to the health and well-being of everyone in our community.

Recognition of hard work

The work of the Food Hub has been recognised through various awards since the business started, and 2025 was no different, with President Geoff Hull being named ‘Community Volunteer of the Year’ (Brighton LGA). Geoff was honoured to accept the award and credited the hard work of the Food Hub volunteers for the recognition. This recognition follows on from 2024 when the Food Hub Treasurer Caroline Bedelph was recognised with the same award for her outstanding community work.

The Food Hub was also named as a Finalist in the 2024 Tasmanian Community Achievement Awards and a semi-finalist in the 2025 Awards.