A charity that redistributes surplus supermarket food to disadvantaged families is facing closure as it struggles to access funding.

Havens Food Cooperative in Newhaven, Sussex, which was set up five years ago and collects more than 150 tonnes of food from 19 supermarkets a year, said it will stop collecting donations at the end of this month “due to a lack of funding”.

“This decision was made solely due to a lack of future funding,” said the charity’s founder Paula Woolven.

“Unfortunately, securing financing and accessing grants has become a perfect storm for several reasons, including the financial pressures local authorities face and government and lottery funding restructuring.”

The charity has now set up a fundraiser to raise £30,000 needed to prevent its closure.

“The public show of support has been heartwarming and humbling, and we were asked to create this page to enable those who could do so to try and save the service,” said the charity.

“Thank you to everyone, past and present, for the amazing community organisation you helped to create. It is so important to hundreds of people.”

Woolven is also urging families impacted by the end of its food collections from supermarkets to contact their local councillors and MPs “to encourage them to support other organisations who will now experience more pressure due to the ending of our collections”.



Despite the closure of the food waste collections, the charity says that community support by Havens Community Hub, which runs the charities Havens Happy Clubs and Havens Community Cars, will continue.

The self-funding Havens Connections Café will also continue to provide low cost and free meals to those facing food insecurity in this coastal area of East Sussex, it adds.

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