Paula Haines has served as the Executive Director of Freedom a la Cart since June 2016. She began her work at Freedom in 2013 as a volunteer, board member and founder of the Eat Up! Columbus fundraising event which has raised over $600,000 for the organization in its five years. Paula leads the organization from an entrepreneurial perspective having operated her own boutique marketing agency for ten years. She was awarded a 2017 Pillar Award as a Nonprofit Executive Director of the Year and was named a Central Ohio Smart 50 Award Honoree for her business leadership.
Freedom a la Cart is a nonprofit organization that empowers survivors of human trafficking to build a new life of freedom and self-sufficiency. In 2011 the organization launched a food cart social enterprise to provide job skill training to survivors - which today has blossomed into a thriving box lunch and catering business employing more than 100 survivors - 59 in the last three years. Of those 59 women, 24 transitioned from the program into sustainable employment within the community. And 85% have received no new criminal records!