Neighbourly grant from Southern Co-op funds bottomless brew for Littlehampton Armed Forces & Veterans Breakfast Club

The club, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in February, submitted an application for £500 and founder Ian Neville learned on Friday, March 31, that the application had been successful.

Mr Neville said: "The purpose of the funding is to make our group more accessible for everybody, regardless of their financial status. We have for some time been offering a free bottomless brew that has been funded by way of donations which would otherwise go towards our welfare spending.

"We feel that as the breakfast club is first and foremost, our number one priority, making it accessible to any member of the military family, is and always will be our priority. The ability to help avoid isolation and loneliness is central to why we operate and anything else we do on whatever scale is secondary to that primary purpose.

"As we engage with the greater numbers from the military community, our secondary roles conducting welfare tasks and supporting those in need increases in line with that, so any cost savings achieved by redirecting donations into our welfare budget enables us to help more people that are signposted to us.

"As always we are very grateful for any help we can get in relation to our fundraising and feel that by continuing to maintain our focus directly on our community with a view to securing the long-term role of our group within the Littlehampton and surrounding area, we hope to ensure that we can be here for veterans and their families in our community for years to come."