Coronavirus: Lewes café owner starts donation-based service

Maya Clark, of zero-waste, vegan enterprise Soul Soup, which usually operates at The Unity Centre, in Lewes, and from the kitchen of Presuming Ed’s Coffeehouse, in Brighton, is putting together ‘nourishing food’ options to support those in social isolation or who are vulnerable.

She started the service on Wednesday (March 18), delivering to eight locations in the Lewes area, and she did her first delivery in Brighton on Friday (March 20). The service is also delivering to Hove, Newhaven and Seaford.

She said: “It feels good to be making a difference.

“It’s amazing how many community groups are springing up so that’s promising.”

The packages available, and suggested donations, are: four portions of soup for £8, a bag of fresh fruit and vegetables for £10, or both for £16.

All produce used is that which would otherwise go to landfill.

She said the idea for the delivery service seemed to ‘grow organically’ in 48 hours, with a ‘quick’ and ‘good’ public response.

She says members of the public have also been ‘paying forward’, donating money to buy food to be delivered to those unable to afford it.

“It’s happened very quickly,” she said.

“For now we’ll keep it like this and if there is a demand for things like bigger meals then, for sure, we can do things like that as well.

“I don’t want to promise anything because you don’t know how things will go.

“As a social business it’s always been about purpose rather than profit.”

Maya opened Soul Soup at The Unity Centre – formerly Lewes’ Turkish Baths – in September 2019, aiming to be inclusive, such as in terms of affordability, sustainable and zero-waste; she launched the venture at Presuming Ed’s Coffeehouse in February.

To minimise the spread of Covid-19, The Unity Centre closed last Tuesday (March 17) and stopped all of its services as of Thursday (March 19); Presuming Ed’s Coffeehouse is no longer offering its take-away service, with measures in place, as of today (March 24).

For more details or to sign up for a food delivery, email [email protected]