The King’s Head, Cacklebury, Hailsham is another local business that has adapted to provide help to the community during the Covid Crisis.
“We were instructed by the government to close our pub on Friday 20 March, and in that final week trade was down considerably as people were told to stay away,” said Helen Lawrence, licensee of the King’s Head, Cacklebury, Hailsham.
“At that point I began to think of what needed to be done and how I could help my local community. I found Hailsham Crisis Support’s Facebook page and messaged them to ask how I could help. It was clear that there were a number of people who would need very prompt help. Identifying and contacting them was going to be a problem. Many had access to the internet or had relatives who could find local help groups on their behalf but I worried about the minority who would be stuck at home with no idea where to turn to get help.
“My neighbour’s family run a printing business and quickly supplied me with 10,000 leaflets, free of charge, which we began to distribute with volunteers and managed to cover a sizeable area of the town in the first few weeks. This generated quite a number of responses both from those needing help and those offering to help.
“We needed to coordinate our growing number of volunteers. I set up a free account, using the business management software Slack, to facilitate this. This meant we could separate out tasks and volunteers into specific areas, such as shopping / prescription collections / making daily or weekly calls to those isolated at home. It also put some safeguards in place, keeping contact details restricted to those who needed them.
“Through our existing wholesalers and another, we were able to work with Hailsham Crisis Support to supply local community with fresh meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, cheese, etc while the shop shelves were still mostly empty. Customers could email or telephone their order through, pay by card and collect by appointment, keeping all contact to an absolute minimum.
“Hailsham Crisis Support is still managing to provide a service for those who continue to need us. We have lost some volunteers as they gradually return to work but fortunately have had some new enquiries and still have the capacity to handle the numerous requests coming in daily.
“The King’s Head now has its own online shop and is still offering a collection or delivery service to the local community.
“My volunteer work with Hailsham Crisis Support, and through our Pub Shop has resulted means has brought our home-made pies, quiches, sausages & burgers to a wider audience and firmly put our pub firmly on the map locally.
“Now we are looking forward to when pubs are allowed to open again, even if it’s just selling drinks in the beer garden,” adds Helen. “There are many obstacles to overcome and some will necessitate extra costs – so the future is still uncertain for us and other local pubs.”
