Stratford Baby Bank sees requests for help double
Growing numbers of parents across the district are turning to Stratford Baby Bank for help during the coronavirus pandemic, with the organisation seeing requests for help double.The Stratford Baby Bank provides essential and non-essential baby, child and pregnancy related items to parents, 80 per cent of which are donated.
These items are then then gifted to families through referrals via G.Ps, Health visitors, The Food Bank, Midwives, Support workers and social workers, while parents can also self-refer direct to the organisation.
Julie Hemming, who runs Stratford Baby Bank, said: “We’re getting about double the number of referrals that we were before the lockdown started, lots of requests for clothes, food and nappies. For some single parents getting out and about to pick up these things can be really difficult at the moment so I am dropping off parcels within a 15 mile radius for those that are not able to get to me. People have also been picking up from my house, but I leave the parcels in a safe place, we don’t have any face to face contact.
“We have had people come to us who previous to the pandemic were donating to us, but now need our help, a lot of people who were OK before all this have been really affected, they’re struggling now. It’s just been crazy for us, we’ve been working really hard to support people.
“We’re continuing to help people but any kind of financial support at the moment, for things like fuel or buying items makes a big difference, we can’t always rely on people donating certain things, for instance a particular clothing size.”
A Henley mum who uses the baby bank said: “I’d be totally lost without the baby bank, I first went to them for help last March when my youngest was three-months old, I’ve been using their exchange service, swapping things my baby has grown out of.
“I’m a single parent and it’s been tough at times, getting help from the baby bank has meant that I have not had to choose between buying baby clothes or food for us to eat, I think it’s a great organisation, I’d be stuck without it and I know a lot of other parents in the area would be too.”
If you would like to support the work of Stratford Baby Bank visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/sualittlebirdbabybank to donate.
If you need help from Stratford Baby Bank, details of how you can get in touch can be found by searching for Stratford upon Avon Baby Bank on Facebook.
