A community café in Woodingdean celebrated its 20th anniversary this weekend.
Java Community Café has grown from an internet café, opened in June 2003, to now serving hot food and offering a local food bank, developed over covid lockdowns.
Managers now hope to separate the non-profit café from Woodingdean Community Association to form their own community interest company.
Former Woodingdean councillor, Dee Simson, who helped set up the café on Warren Way, said this move would help the café remain sustainable and open for the community.
She said: “The café gives opportunities for anybody and everybody.
“No volunteer is ever turned away, regardless of their ability, mental health or learning disability, and we’ll let them do what they feel capable of.
“We have become known as somewhere where one person can walk in on their own, they don’t feel uncomfortable, they’re made to feel welcome.
“I can honestly say that I feel we’ve saved a lot of lives, because the people who were really at their lowest, who felt lonely or depressed, have come in there and they’ve been welcomed.”
Volunteers past and present gathered to celebrate the Java Community Café on Saturday, 10 June.
Ms Simson said: “It was like a carnival. We had candy floss, and took all the tables and chairs out to the pavement.
“Everybody was talking to one another and catching up and remembering because a lot of volunteers met there.
“It was like a family party.”
