Do Good, Feel Good: Volunteering at BrightStore CIC

Volunteers are vital, and throughout 2025, some of the team at East Brighton Trust will be casting a light on the brilliant community groups that exist in East and North Brighton by volunteering and writing all about the experience in our new blog series ‘Do Good, Feel Good’. 

There are so many benefits to volunteering, and by helping to support worthwhile causes and people in need, you’re almost certainly doing yourself a favour as well as making a difference locally.  

Connecting with your community by volunteering can mean learning new skills, gaining knowledge, and can give a new sense of purpose and belonging, while improving your health and wellbeing. 

Last week, Beki went along to volunteer with the team at BrightStore CIC, the community-led social grocery store that’s conveniently stationed at the Whitehawk Family Hub every Thursday.  

BrightStore was born from the shared experiences of a team of like-minded volunteers during the pandemic.  

While supporting multiple food projects, a need for an affordable, social and weekly grocery store was identified, which led to the launch of BrightStore at Hollingdean Community Centre in October 2020.  

Four years later, there’s now three stores in Hollingdean, Mile Oak and of course Whitehawk, which are all united in sustainably tackling food inequality and food waste. 

Arriving as the first volunteer of the day, I was warmly greeted by store-lead Luna who gave me a tour of the spacious indoor and outdoor areas that are transformed into this unique and vibrant community food store every week. 

Luna spoke about the accessible and inclusive BrightStore membership, how people experiencing food insecurity can get a weekly shop of high quality surplus and donated food for a fraction of what it would cost elsewhere. 

“It’s £5.00 for a small shop that feeds one to two people and £7.00 for a large shop that feeds more than two people. There is the option to pay more if you can, and if, on occasion, someone isn’t able to pay, they don’t have to” 

 BrightStore currently has over 450 active members across all their stores, and fed an amazing 641 households last year which was a total of 1564 people.

Next to arrive was Abi, who’s been volunteering at BrightStore for over two years.

“I moved from London two years ago and didn’t know anyone. I didn’t know where I belonged and needed to find my feet; I joined here as a member and then started volunteering and here I am, still here.

It’s great because you meet so many people and it’s really sociable”.  

Luna spoke about how BrightStore relies on their amazing volunteers but there are times when there just aren’t enough people. 

 “Most of our volunteers and staff, including myself, were members first before becoming more involved, and this highlights the belief and dedication our members have in a BrightStore future; we serve so many households and we never want to close, but we’ve had to not open a couple of times because we just didn’t have enough volunteers”. 

 With the three of us there, it was all systems go to set-up-shop as Fareshare delivered a mass of crates with everything from lemon curd to lentils, alongside copious amounts of bread. 

We then joined forces to unload the boot of Luna’s car, which contained more boxes of perishables than the fruit and veg aisle in Lidl; another haul of high-quality surplus food.  

Luna and Abi were both very slick with their foot-store presentation skills and attention to detail. 

Brightly patterned tablecloths, different sized display-baskets and tasteful stock presentation was brought to every table. 

The atmosphere was fun, warm, and inviting, and with Luna’s very clear and organised guidance, it all came together for opening time. 

Returning as a customer when BrightStore was in full swing that afternoon was inspiring, and brought to light just how much choice there is for members. A vast amount of fresh food, an enormous line of crates that were brimming with fruit, vegetables and flowers, and all in such a friendly and inviting space.  

More volunteers had arrived to sign up new members, make sure tables and shelves were fully stocked up, and to ensure that everyone was able to find what they needed.  

Flawlessly described by Luna as: “a friendly, inclusive place that brings a local community together through food”, BrightStore really is a brilliant and valuable place to volunteer.  

If you’re interested in volunteering at BrightStore, you can email info@brightstore.org or call 07306 655432. 

Find out more about BrightStore here.