Seaton Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups. We will be profiling some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'Up Close'.

This week, we caught up with Sarah Reed, the Member Pioneer for Seaton and Sidmouth. Working in backstage theatre in London, Sarah was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and spontaneously made the move to Seaton in September, having fallen in love with the town during a day trip.

She was keen to throw herself into what she described as the "proactive and welcoming community", so she started working at The Ship Inn in Axmouth and was recently appointed Co-op Member Pioneer for the Seaton and Sidmouth areas, bringing together Co-op Members, colleagues and Local Causes to help the community.

Sarah commented: "I wanted to support this amazing local community who had welcomed me so warmly during a difficult year.

"There is so much going on in East Devon and loads of people give their time to help others. There is a lot of local word-of-mouth recommendation already, and the Member Pioneer role offered me an opportunity to try and tap into that and enable me to offer help through Co-op donations and initiatives."

Speaking about what her role as a Co-op Member Pioneer entails, Sarah continued: "Co-op Member Pioneers bring together Co-op members, colleagues and local causes to make communities a better place to work, play, live and learn.

"I like to think of it as a part-time liaison role, getting involved in my local community and enabling causes and individuals to have a greater impact with the help of the Co-op.

"We can put you in touch with like-minded people, offer practical advice, and help. It's very much a networking role and there are a lot of different elements.

"The majority of my focus is on the three nominated causes that are linked to the local Co-op stores, but it's also about learning what matters to the community and finding practical ways to bring the right people and opportunities together."

Colyton Caterpillars Pre-School, Rupert's Under 5s Pre-School and Seaton Primary School PFA are the latest Local Causes to benefit from Co-op's support, with new beneficiaries to be announced soon.

Sarah says that Co-op Member Pioneers help Local Causes in lots of ways, commenting: "This week I'm dropping off donations of food and drink to Colyton Caterpillars for an event they are hosting.

"I am also creating social media pages so we can share any news, events or requests for help from local causes.

"If you are a Co-op Member, then whenever you shop, a proportion of your spending is donated to the Local Community Fund, so I'd recommend all members go on the app and choose a specific cause.

"There are lots of ways Member Pioneers can support local causes, and I hope I can establish myself and do more in the future."

Since taking on the role of Member Pioneer, Sarah said she has enjoyed learning about the many different Co-op assets, saying it is much more than the food and drink stores that we see on the high streets.

These include Co-operate, Foodshare, Co-op Academies and the Community Wellbeing Index, which Sarah says can help people find the support they need and plug gaps in the community.

"Co-operate is a great initiative to quickly see what local causes and charities are out there," she said. "Going forward it is now a growing database.

"I moved to Devon recently and finding groups to join was really important to me. I'd like to grow it more and I've been researching different causes and contacting them to suggest they join. "So if you run a group or event in Seaton please sign up!"

The Foodshare scheme has seen Co-op provide more than three million meals by donating products that are going out of date to local community groups.

Sarah added: "Foodshare aims to reduce food waste, and the Co-op Store in Seaton donates daily to SAVE Food Hub, which I use myself."

Having only recently taken on the role of Member Pioneer, Sarah says she is always learning new things about the Co-op. She hopes she can support the Seaton community in more ways as she settles in, so if you have a community initiative, project or ideas and need help or advice linking up to the relevant support from Co-op assets, contact Sarah on [email protected].

If you've got any ideas on how Co-op could help your community, or want to know what Co-op is doing near you then contact the Co-op Member Pioneer Co-ordinator for your area, who will then put you in touch with your local Member Pioneer.