Children in Brighton & Hove need your help

Aim: We provide essentials to families with children struggling to afford the basics. Your support will help us meet growing demand. #BeAPelican

Pelican Parcels works in Brighton and Hove to help families get the essential items they need for their babies and children up to age 12. We recycle pre-loved essential items, taking them from families who no longer need them and giving them to those who do.  

The cost of living crisis is hitting families hard. With your help, more children can have clothes that fit, a school uniform or a bed to sleep in. Your donation can ensure parents aren’t watering down formula and have the early years essentials and nappies they need for their babies. 

Support today to make a big difference to the lives of local children and families.

In 5 years, we have helped over 20,000 children, pregnant mums and their families. We have seen a huge increase in demand. In 2023 we supported 5,650 children and families in our local community – an increase of 136% in the last 3 years. Sadly, as families struggle with the cost of living crisis demand will increase and it is vital that we continue help them. 

Locally as many as 1 in 3 children are living in poverty. (Citizen's Advice data)

We want to ensure that more children have the essentials they need to give them the best start in life, whilst supporting parents and carers with lovingly put together packages made to feel like gifts. 

HOW WE WORK 

We have five main projects 

• Parcels: Essential items for children and pregnant mums (clothing and toys, buggies, beds and nappies). 
• School Uniform Parcels: Non-branded uniform items, new school shoes, new PE trainers, PE bag, water bottle and stationery. 
• Christmas and Eid: The festive season is a very hard time for families and giving them something to wrap and give to their children is really important. They receive a present, pjs and a warm blanket. 
• Foodbanks: We work with foodbanks to distribute nappies and tubs of formula. 
• Good Night Sleep Project: We give out moses baskets, cots and single beds to children (nearly 5 every week), plus blanket and sleeping bag sets and bedding bundles. 

We collect items, receive referrals and distribute them to those in need 

• Collect: We have regular open sessions where people drop off items. Our 29 volunteers sort and organise donations ready for redistribution.  
• Referral: Once referrals and requests for items are received from partners, our volunteers process and package them.  
• Distribution: Our parcels are distributed by our partners at scheduled visits, through children's centres, foodbanks, schools and charity networks. Partners collect the parcels from our warehouse or we take them to their places of work. 

 WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP 

Imagine not having the nappies you need for your baby. What would you do if you could not afford clothes, a bed or school uniforms for your child? That is the reality for an increasing number of families. 

The cost of living crisis continues to have an enormous impact on the need for our work. Giving people the essential items they need takes some worries and pressure away. It doesn’t solve the problem but if we can give a family the clothes, bedding or uniform they need it just eases that ‘heat or eat’ decision that they are making.   

Our volunteers take great care to ensure our parcels are personalised and made to feel like gifts. 

The costs for essentials items have gone up.  We’re seeing increasing demand for our services. It costs us more to pay for and distribute these essentials. We need your help today so that we can support those who need help now and so we can continue to support many more for years to come. 

WHAT YOUR SUPPORT WILL DO 

Our costs are increasing. Like our beneficiaries we are feeling the pinch of rising costs of heating and lighting in our warehouse. It currently costs £10,000 to run the charity for 1 month but we need to grow to meet the increased need. 

Help more families and children. We need to be able to clear our waiting list and ensure we can get items out to families that need them as quickly as possible. We can do this if we reach our £30,000 goal! 

Provide more children’s parcels (£15,000). Support 600 more children with essential items most of which are preloved ensuring their reuse. 

Grow our volunteer programme (£5,000). We could not support so many families without our amazing volunteers. Last year 5,500 volunteer hours saw 5,650 people supported. This money will fund an additional 250 hours from our part-time volunteer coordinator, to help us recruit and train new volunteers and create training materials. Every hour given by volunteers equals another child supported! 

Reach more schools (£10,000). Currently, we support 9 of the 66 primary schools in Brighton & Hove. If we reach our goal will be able to buy and distribute school uniforms and shoes to more schools where they are needed. We aim to partner with 4 more schools (supporting 400 more children). 

OUR STORY 

Pelican Parcels was founded by Shelley and James Bennett in 2018. They wanted to gift some of their cherished, but no longer used, baby items to a family in need. No service existed locally so they decided to start a charity to provide and recycle children’s items for families that needed them. 

When Pelican Parcels started there were not many baby banks - Little Village (London) hosts a list of baby banks which now has over 200.  

In 5 years, Pelican Parcels has grown to a team of 2 part-time staff, over 25 volunteers and 6 trustees. All dedicated to supporting local families.  

DONATIONS & REWARDS 

You can donate any amount directly to our Crowdfunder. Or pledge to receive a reward that you’d like or gift to someone special.  

Donate any amount!

Here’s how your money could help.  

£20 = New mum pack with maternity essentials such as breast pads and a new breast pump 

£40 = Nappies and wipes for 1 month for 2 children  

£50 = Formula for 1 month for a baby 

£60 = A complete uniform set for a child including new shoes and new trainers, polo shirts, trousers, jumpers, PE kit and new socks and a PE bag with waterbottle and filled pencil case 

£85 = Single bed and mattress  

£100 = Give 3 children support from Pelican Parcels  

£334 = One day of Pelican Parcel’s activity 

Rewards

We have some special rewards including some from amazing businesses that support our mission who have kindly donated to our campaign. 

Shoreham-by-Sea (top-left), Brighton Clocktower (top-right), Fancy a walk along the prom (bottom-left), Prom Pavillion (bottom-right).

THANK YOU!!! 

As always, a huge thanks to our wonderful volunteers (we couldn’t do any of this without you!), our staff and trustees, all our partners and the amazing local businesses who have supported us. Thanks to Katie Penfold, Sarah Filbey and Richard Ling (Shiftmaker) for their support delivering the #BeAPelican campaign and Crowdfunder. We’re proud of our community and the heartfelt support we receive to ensure we can support more people in Brighton & Hove.

Thanks also to our incredible match funders The Homity Trust, who have generously given us £10,000 to celebrate their 10th birthday and who have supported Pelican Parcels right from our first year; and also Enjoolata Foundation who are giving £10,000 and have been instrumental in the development of our uniform project. We are delighted to be supported by The Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust for this campaign with £7,500.

Thank you to Rotary Soiree for their support of this campaign.