Paula Woolven, 51, has become the second generation of her family to be awarded the British Empire Medal (B.E.M) in the New Year’s Honours List with a special mention of her efforts during the 2019 Covid Pandemic, where she set up the Havens Food Cooperative project in Newhaven, East Sussex, to prevent food waste from supermarkets and feed the community free of charge.

A regular charity supporter from the age of 14, Telscombe Cliffs resident Paula was first inspired by the example set by her mother, Marilyn Nolan, herself a community stalwart and lifelong volunteer for many charities including the RNIB, the Barn Theatre, DaSH JFC and the Meridian Mature Citizens Forum.

“I was always helping mum and dad with things like counting the coins from the Sooty collection boxes, helping at cake sales or performing at events so community support has been a way of life for me,” said Paula, “my own three children were brought up the same way.”

Marilyn, 77, was awarded the B.E.M in the New Year’s Honours List of 2016 and was delighted to discover that her daughter has been recognised with the same honour, seven years later.

The B.E.M. is the second national honour Paula has been awarded, following the presentation of the Royal Humane Society Parchment in 2015 for saving the life of a suicidal person on the Newhaven Swing Bridge who had climbed over the railings and was dangling over the cold, fast-flowing river.

Paula founded the Havens Community Hub in 2018 and pushed the fledgling not-for-profit beyond its limits during C19, taking on the Havens Happy Clubs for older people with complex needs, founding Havens Community Cars CIO – a volunteer driver charity with over 600 members unable to use public transport and creating the multi-award winning environmental and cost of living assisting surplus food pantry – the Havens Food Cooperative, which has just celebrated saving over one million pounds worth of food from landfill and rapidly redistributing it to hundreds of Lewes District families and other charities, including all the local foodbanks.

The Food Cooperative is open 365 days a year in Thompson Road, Newhaven.

“I may be the captain, but this ship couldn’t have set sail without all the wonderful volunteers, supporters and staff on board,” Paula said, “we have nearly 100 people directly involved in the front-line services that the Hub provides through our different projects and legacy charities, including our new community and small business support services based at the Telscombe Cliffs Civic Centre.  I know it’s cliché but I would genuinely like to thank each and every volunteer and dedicate this award to their tireless work to make every day a little better.”

East Sussex Wellbeing at Work is an accreditation programme that provides a free framework for employers to improve wellbeing in the workplace and Havens Community Hub CIC have become the first not-for-profit small organisation to achieve the silver criteria for their commitment to their staff and volunteers.

Hub Founder, Paula Woolven, said "I believe employers, whether commercial or charity, should always invest in the well-being of their staff and volunteers - our greatest assets. When people feel supported and valued, they are more engaged, motivated and productive, improving morale within a positive environment. Having achieved our bronze award earlier in the year, I'm delighted that our ongoing work has resulted in us achieving silver. We aim to become the first not-for-profit to win the gold award in 2024."

The programme, run by East Sussex County Council, takes a holistic approach, including the following topics:

Physical Activity and Active Travel, Healthy Eating, Musculoskeletal Health and Health and Safety, Mental Health, Sickness Absence, Return to Work and Prevention, Alcohol, Substance Misuse, Stop Smoking, Leadership, Management and Workplace Culture.

To find out more or to sign up for free, visit https://wellbeingatwork.eastsussex.gov.uk

Photo: Havens Community Hub representatives accept the award

(L-R) Flavia de Melo Dewey (ESCC), Dani McDonald (Hub), Dawn Norman (Hub).

Telscombe Civic Centre

We are delighted to confirm that Havens Community Hub CIC has been approved by Lewes District Council as one of the UKSPF Stakeholder organisations for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. With this we will be able to develop and deliver a Peacehaven Community Hub, following the success of the Havens Community Hub model based in Denton, and LDC has submitted their investment plan to the government for final approval.

The main goals of the project are:

1. To develop and deliver a central point for facilitating and increasing volunteering opportunities for individuals at local groups, causes and charities.

2. To provide a physical presence for the not-for-profit business support organisations.

3. In conjunction with the volunteering project, to support local charities, not-for-profit organisations and groups with practical hands-on advice, administration and peer-to-peer networking.

4. To improve access to advice and support services which benefit residents' health, finances and well-being.

Founded, Paula Woolven, says: "I'm delighted that Lewes District Council have recognised the ongoing impact of our project development work over the difficult pandemic period and trusted Havens Community Hub's reputation for 'finding a way or making a way' to invest in this exciting opportunity for Peacehaven's residents, charities and businesses."

During the last three years, Havens Community Hub CIC has developed three main projects to meet unmet community need - Havens Community Cars - a charity supporting over 500 residents with 25 volunteer drivers, Havens Food Cooperative - a food waste prevention project saving and redistributing over 1 ton of food from supermarkets per week and the Havens Happy Clubs - providing dementia-friendly stimulating activities for older people.

From April 2023, you will continue to find Havens Community Cars + Havens Food Cooperative at Havens Community Hub, 2a Thompson Road, Denton, BN9 0RS. You will find Havens Community Hub and it's new projects at Telscombe Civic Centre, Central Avenue, Telscombe Cliffs, BN10 7ES.

Havens Community Hub achieved the Wellbeing at Work Small Business Bronze award in January 2023!

One of the best initiatives that the organisation undertook as part of their award was running a staff health and wellbeing survey, as it is not something they had done before. The survey has provided excellent insight into which areas of health and wellbeing that staff would like support with. Dani McDonald, award lead and Project Support Administrator, said ‘’We have always been focussed on the needs of staff and volunteers as Havens Community Hub with wellbeing at the forefront of everything that we do. However taking part in the Wellbeing at Work programme, and running a staff survey in particular, has helped us to prioritise providing the support and information that would be most helpful to our staff. We are excited to continue with the Small Business Silver award’’.

At the end of 2022, Havens Food Cooperative held a celebration event, inviting the Mayor of

Newhaven, the Chair of Lewes District Council and Store Representatives to attend. A

presentation to thank the 19 stores Havens Food Cooperative partners with, for their

continuing support and donations of surplus food was given, at the Havens Community Hub.

Havens Food Cooperative were able to share details on how the donated surplus food is

used to support over 350 families weekly, and 20+ groups and organisations.

The Havens Food Cooperative Food Waste Prevention and Priority Redistribution Scheme

would not be such a success without the amazing collaboration from all the local stores-

Sainsburys, Tesco, Coop, Lidl, Morrisons, Waitrose and ASDA. With dedication from the 19

stores partnered with we are ensuring that food waste is not an issue in the Havens area-

over 1 ton of food is being redistributed and prevented from reaching landfill every week.

To date over £570,000 of food has been redistributed and the surplus food donations from

stores are helping Havens Food Cooperative to tackle food waste and food insecurity locally.

Thank you again to all the stores hard work in ensuring that surplus food donations reach

us.

On 1st December, we were kindly invited to Sussex Business Awards where we had been shortlisted for the Community Hero Award. After a fabulous 3 course meal and entertainment at The Grand Hotel, Brighton we were delighted to be awarded 2nd place!

It was an incredible evening surrounded by some amazing local businesses.

Thank you to Platinum Media Group Ltd and Ridgeview Wine Estate and a huge well done to all the other finalists and winners!

Havens Food Cooperative recently ran a Slow Cooker Scheme to help encourage people to use slow cookers to create budget-friendly meals. Slow cookers are an energy-efficient piece of kitchen equipment that can save money on your bills!

The scheme ran October-November and saw that 10 slow cookers were distributed to families. 52 ingredient packs were also distributed to a total of 22 families who joined the scheme. The ingredient packs created were filled with the ingredients needed to prepare a meal for 4-6 people, along with a tested recipe card to follow along. The recipes chosen were simple, one pot, adaptable and chosen specifically to build confidence with using slow cookers.

The scheme started with a welcome event where families were invited to to trial some meals made using slow cookers and discuss and share different recipe ideas and tips. The event was a success, and a great introduction on what recipes are out there to try. One
participant commented- ‘Everyone was keen to learn tips from each other.... it was buzzing there!’ and another added- ‘it was a lovely evening for people to come together exchange ideas and learn new things together’.

Overall, the slow cooker scheme was a success and at the end of the scheme families were left feeling confident to continue using their slow cooker to create budget friendly family meals and therefore save money on their energy bills! One participant stated- ‘I learnt so
much and it gave me confidence to give different recipes a try’. Another added- ‘I loved learning a new a cheaper way to cook. It has become my new hobby’.

Head over to our website to view the recipes we included in Havens Food Cooperatives Slow Cooker Scheme!

Support With Confidence

Happy clubs have been approved the support with confidence certificate. 

Support with confidence ensures that we can provide a wide variety of support including and not limited to:

• Support with personal care.

• Support with medication.

• Support with meal preparation.

Congratulations to all the staff and volunteers of the happy clubs 

Seahaven Business Awards!!!

We have had a busy few months here at Havens Community Hub 

In May, our very own Company Secretary, Paula Woolven, was announced runner-up for Business Person of the Year at The Seahaven Business Awards 2022. On the same night, Havens Food Cooperative were awarded the trophy for Best Environmental Business 2022! Congratulations!

We would like to thank all of our staff, volunteers and the community for all of the hard work, effort and support to help us get to where we are now. We couldn't do what we do without you all!  

We had a busy afternoon at Denton Jubilee Street Party on 4th June 2022 redistributing over 100 bowls of vegetable curries made using rescued and donated food. 

It was a lovely event and a real pleasure to be a part of!