Crowdfund North East LEP has provided £5,000 of match funding
Clothe and Feed NE - COVID19 Vulnerable Families
Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom
Aim
Please join me and make a difference? Every donation will help. Thank you in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much
1. Introduction
Clothe and Feed are a brilliant charity which started out in life in March 2018 being inspired to help relieve clothing and food poverty for vulnerable people and their children throughout the North East. The COVID 19 crisis has resulted in a doubling in demand for our services from the most vulnerable people in Newcastle, Gateshead, Wallsend, Hebburn, Cramlington and Sunderland. There is considerable evidence that the number of COVID19 cases in the North East, are amongst the highest in the country, and that vulnerable families and people suffer most from it.
We are registered with the Charity Commission (Charity Number 1177545) and are set up as a non-profit making Community Interest Company (Company Number CEO13532). We already have 18 volunteers who do an amazing job collecting, organising and delivering our service to over 4,500 people each year. Our main hub is at Cobalt Business Park where we already have a massive stock of school uniforms, shoes, PE kits, warm coats, baby essentials, formal / interview / special occasion wear and children’s books and presents. We have three trustees who meet at least four times a year. Our volunteers, trustees and staff are adept at stretching our resources to maximize our benefits to our vulnerable families and children.
Our mission is:
“To help relieve poverty and financial hardship in North East England by providing emergency food, clothing, essential toiletries and other household items to individuals and families in need”
With our existing infrastructure, community networks, partnerships with businesses, public agencies and supermarkets, we're in a strong position to continue to support our most vulnerable families during the COVID 19 by freely providing the following to our most vulnerable families:
1. Emergency Food Parcels either from our shops, bases or delivered by our van direct to homes.
2. Toiletries including sanitary products, toilet paper, soap and other cleaning products.
3. Essential Baby Supplies including Baby buggies, chairs, cots and prams, Baby clothes, nappies, baby boxes and baby food.
4. Help for Victims Suffering from Domestic Abuse and Social Isolation by offering a friendly voice, a listening ear and making links with local refuges and statutory agencies where needed.
5. Good quality school uniforms, footwear and PE kits. We have an incredibly large and well organised stock of good quality school uniforms and clothing in all sizes from over 100 schools throughout the North East.
6. Warm coats, winter wear and footwear for all ages.
7. Formal / Interview Wear Free Hire Service including suits, and special occasion wear for interviews, weddings & christenings
The cost of these items are prohibitively expensive for many young mums, families and individuals and often children go without the necessities many of us take for granted.
Our service costs us over £62,000 each year to run.The COVID19 crisis has made fundraising more difficult, but we have already secured over £28k grants and donations from well known North East trusts and foundations, philanthropists and stauatory agencies, and have further bids submitted seeking the balance of match funding needed to fully fund our project. Help us to continue to make a difference by donating today.
2. Our Project
Our project is seeking to raise £10,000 to help pay for our Clothe and Feed Charity’s core costs for the next 12 months which include our staffing and volunteer costs, vehicle and travel expenses and our premises costs. Our volunteers are the face of our charity to vulnerable families, helping and supporting them at their time of most need. Your £10,000 contribution will help us to:
- Deliver over 2000 food, toiletry and baby essential parcels to our most vulnerable families collected from supermarkets, schools, businesses and other sources.
- Support over 5500 vulnerable families and children, giving children a much better start in life, keeping them warm and fed and helping to keep vulnerable families out of debt.
- Target an additional 20 schools - helping us to collect and recycle over 5000 items of school uniforms and other clothing
- Secure at least an additional 200 days staff volunteer time from local businesses
- Recruit an additional 20 businesses to support our charity helping us to secure at least £5000 in cash donations and to collect over 2000 items of baby buggies and baby essentials, school uniforms, childrens books and gifts, special occasion wear and warm clothing for old and young alike for us to recyle to vulnerable families.
- Provide help for victims suffering from domestic abuse and social isolation by offering a friendly voice, a listening ear and making links with local refuges and statutory agencies where needed.
- Help our charity to become more sustainable and resilient by diversifying our funding sources
3. Clothe and Feed – Services We Provide
3.1 Emergency Food Donations
We work closely with our partners including food banks and supermarkets to collect and deliver emergency food donations to be made to our families most in need, particularly during school holidays and the current COVID 19 crisis when budgets are stretched the most. The parcels can be collected from our shops and base or we can deliver them direct to the door in our van.
3.2 Nursery Service
We have the largest free baby equipment loan service in the North East. Our Nursery Department is packed with everything you need for babies including baby buggies, chairs, cots and prams, baby clothes toiletries, nappies and Baby Boxes complete with everything a new baby needs. Newcastle International Airport and Bay Food Bank are donate over 150 abandoned buggies and prams each year which we lend out to vulnerable families throughout the North East completely free of charge. We also provide all baby clothes, nappies, toiletries and baby boxes completely free of charge, helping vulnerable families and their babies throughout the North East to get a much improved start in life.
3.3 Community School Clothing Scheme
We have an incredibly large and well organised stock of good quality school uniforms and clothing in all sizes from over 100 schools throughout the North East. A great expense for many families throughout the North East particularly where there are several school age children, these uniforms are offered free of charge saving considerable expense. Not only do we offer free school uniforms we also offer:
3.4 School Footwear, PE kits, after school club kits such as cubs, football and dance and gymnastics
All of these items are offered free of charge, ensuring that children from deprived communities are able to fully participate in school clubs and activities.
3.5 Winter Wear and Warm Clothing
We’re really proud to be able to collect and offer warm coats and clothing to our children, families and older people in need. We plan to donate well coats, jumpers and other warm clothing items to over 1000 people.
3.7 Formal / Interview Wear Free Hire Service
We offer a great selection of men’s and women’s suits and interview wear. If you are going to interviews or a special event there is no need to pay a fortune when sometimes the garment will only be used a few times. We also have a large selection of special occasion wear and accessories for events such as weddings, christenings, funerals and other special occasions which are often so expensive and inaccessible to those on low incomes.
3.8 Children’s Gifts, Books and Presents
We have a wide range of children’s books and a large stock of children’s presents which are free for all children and their parents / carers. At times like birthdays and Christmas, we ensure that no child misses out and that vulnerable families don’t feel pressured to get into debt buying presents – every little helps !
4. Clothe and Feed Achievements So Far
Great progress has already been made over the last 12 months including:
- Over 4,500 people including families, young mothers, older people and other individuals from our most vulnerable communities have been helped and supported.
- Collection and distribution points have been set up in Sunderland, Cobalt Business Park, Cramlington, Wallsend, Hebburn and Newcastle with plans to set up a new base in the West End of Newcastle and Gateshead during 2020.
- Newcastle International Airport and Bay Foodbank have kindly agreed to donate abandoned baby buggies (around 150 each year) which are reused and lent out free of charge to deprived families throughout the North East.
- Our school uniform hubs give away thousands of items of school uniform and shoes from over 100 North East schools each year.
- Our Baby Bank re-uses and lends buggies, prams, cots and baby chairs free to vulnerable families. We also offer free nappies, baby clothing, toiletries and other baby boxes and equipment – essential to give babies the best start in life.
- Successful in our bid to be Marks and Spencer’s Silverlink Charity of the Year for 2019
- Partnerships built up with many public and private sector organisations and companies who provide volunteers, clothes collections and funding (ie Accenture, North P and I, Newcastle Airport, Marks and Spencers, Morrisons, Sir Peter Vardy and other supermarkets, housing associations and local authorities.
- Kind grants and donations have been made by charitable trusts including Sir James Knott Trust, Ballinger Charitable Trust, Barbour Foundation and many more.
- Distributing hundreds of gifts and presents for children – particularly important for Birthdays & Christmas
- Providing emergency food donations for vulnerable families working with our foodbank partners
- We’ve just received an incredibly generous donation of over 200 prom and special occasion dresses from Pink Boutique (a local Gosforth business) helping to save money for many of our vulnerable families and to make many girls and women’s dreams come true, once lockdown is ended.
We’ve already made a great start with amazing feedback from our beneficiaries who really are taken aback and incredibly appreciative of the help and support we offer. But it’s not enough. We need your support to build our impact. With your help, we know we can do so much more - the demand for our services continues to grow. Help us by donating today !
5. The Difference Our Clothe and Feed Charity Makes
Our work provides the glue that helps and supports North East families at vulnerable times. Your donation will help our charity to:
- Deliver over 2000 food, toiletry and baby essential parcels to our most vulnerable families collected from supermarkets, schools, businesses and other sources
- Collect and recycle over 8,000 items of used clothing and school uniforms – reducing wastage, giving them a new lease of life and saving money for our vulnerable families and individuals.
- Give at least 1,000 babies and young children from deprived families a much better start in life.
- Enable at least 3,000 children each year to access high quality school uniforms, footwear, PE kit and other clothing.
- Help over 500 people with special occasion wear for weddings, christenings, school proms, and interviews
- Keep at least 1,000 vulnerable people warm by donating free winter coats and warm clothing – helping to keep them healthy and reducing their heating bills.
- Provide help and support to victims suffering from domestic abuse and social isolation by offering a friendly voice, a listening ear and making links with local refuges and statutory agencies where needed.
- Our help and support by a team of hardworking and talented staff and volunteers helps prevent vulnerable families getting into debt – a downward spiral that can result in considerable distress, rent arrears and even eviction.
- We provide volunteering opportunities for local companies and for local people
Over the period of this 1 year project, we expect to benefit at least 5,500 people from our most vulnerable communities at the time of their greatest need.
6. Clothe and Feed - Community Need
Child Poverty is a particular concern in North East England where there are approximately 132,000 children living in poverty which equates to around 24% of all children. According to End Child Poverty UK, this rises to 1 in 3 children living in poverty in our most deprived areas with the North East having some of the highest levels of child poverty in the country.
Across the North East, 20% of children live in homes that are cold or damp or both. There is an increasing demand for school uniforms, warm coats and clothing and good shoes in our area. The cost of these items are prohibitively expensive for many young mums, families and individuals. Often children go without the necessities many of us take for granted. In the UK, over 350,000 tonnes (worth £140 million) of used but still wearable clothing go into landfill every year – we recycle and re-use at least some of these clothes, putting them to a much better use !
Our free clothing, warm jackets, school uniforms and emergency food donations make a massive difference to families living in poverty and in poor housing conditions. Demand for our services has doubled due to COVID 19 and will grow even further in August 2020 when children need new school uniforms. Several surveys have flagged up that countless children suffer the embarrassment of being sanctioned for not having the correct school uniform, including being sent home, sent to isolation and missing out on rewards. We help tackle this issue.
There is a massive need in the North East to help struggling mums and vulnerable children with baby equipment, clothing and toiletries. Our Baby Bank Appeal exists to fund expansion of the existing service by building up donation and collection points. The Baby Bank service is free to those accessing it. It already makes a huge difference, but there is so much more that can be done.
7. Our Beneficiaries
Our beneficiaries come from some of the most deprived communities in Tyne and Wear and Northumberland and include:
- Babies and Toddlers who receive a better start in life through our Nursery Service
- School age children – who receive school uniforms, PE kits, warm clothing, good shoes books, gifts and special occasion wear
- Vulnerable families – our food boxes and other donations help to reduce their costs and keep them out of debt
- Older people who benefit from the receipt of warm clothing – particularly important in winter to keep them warm and to reduce their heating bills
- Our helpful staff provide a listening ear and a friendly voice to those suffering from social isolation, domestic violence and abuse, referring people to statutory agencies and refuges if needed
Many of our beneficiaries are referred to us by local authorities and housing associations, but we also promote our service through a website, Facebook and other agencies dealing with vulnerable families.
8. Love What We Do – Here’s How you Can Help
Our Clothe and Feed charity costs £62,000 each year to run and offers fantastic value for money due to the many donations we receive from supermarkets and businesses. We organise and recycle these donations and donate them to our vulnerable families even to their door if needed. The COVID 19 crisis has massively increased the demand for our services but this makes income generation to meet our fixed and variable costs even more important at a time when traditional fundraising cash collections and donations from many businesses have become increasingly difficult.
Our Clothe and Feed Charity, makes a massive difference to vulnerable children, families and individuals across the North East. We’ve already made a great start with amazing feedback from our beneficiaries who really are taken aback and incredibly appreciative of the help and support we offer.
But it’s not enough. We need your support to build our impact. And with your help, we know we can do so much more. Any donation towards our charity is very much welcomed:
- £5 enables us to collect and deliver one food parcel to a vulnerable family
- £10 enables us to provide free PE kit to 2 children – they won’t miss out on lessons
- £20 enables us to collect and donate free books, and other presents to 5 children from vulnerable families – particularly important at Christmas and Birthdays
- £50 helps us to provide a free suit and special occasion wear (for interviews, funerals, weddings and christenings) for 10 people
- £100 enables us to collect, recycle and donate 30 winter coats to vulnerable families and older people
- £250 helps us to collect and donate two free school uniforms for 30 children
- £500 enables us to donate buggies, clothes, toiletries and nappies for 50 babies through our Baby Bank – helping to give them the best start in life
- £1,200 meets our total running costs for one week
While there is great satisfaction in knowing that you’re helping babies, children, young families and other vulnerable people, we hope to see this as a mutually beneficial relationship. Even the smallest contribution will be much appreciated.
If we can collect £5,000 from local people and businesses, this will be matched pound for pound enabling us to collect a further £5000 from the North East Local Enterprise Partnership COVID19 Impact Support Fund. There has never been a better time to donate to our Clothe and Food Charity, and there has never been such need from our vulnerable families - £10,000 will make an enormous difference.
Please donate today to help us to help our most deprived children, families and older people at the time of their greatest need !
This project successfully funded on 27th July 2020