Clothing charity receives funding boost

A North Yorkshire charity helping families in crisis has secured new funding to support growing demand for essential clothing packs.

The Clothing Bank has received a £2000 grant from the Banks Group’s Banks Community Fund to help provide additional items for children, young people and adults facing hardship.

Based in Eggborough, the charity delivered support to more than 10,000 people last year through seven-day clothing packs containing everyday essentials.

Founded in 2020 by Susan Bell and Sally Parkinson, The Clothing Bank was created after the pair recognised gaps in support for people struggling to afford clothing.

What began with a small number of volunteer drop-off points has since expanded into a network of more than 100 collection locations across Yorkshire.

The charity now operates from its Clothing Bank Cabin in Brotherton, where donated items are sorted and prepared for distribution.

Unusable garments are recycled to help cover running costs, while requests for support are accepted from across the UK as demand continues to rise.

Sally says the funding will be used to purchase items often difficult to source through donations, including coats, warm footwear, school uniforms, nightwear, underwear and plus-size clothing.

She said: “We knew there was a real need for this sort of help in our community, so set up The Clothing Bank to ensure that anyone in a difficult situation had somewhere to turn when they needed to without having to get a referral or go through any official channels.

“Clothing really does open doorways for people that might otherwise remain closed, and we know from the stories that we hear just how much of a difference the help we provide makes to the lives of the people that we see.

“We’ve built a fantastic community that supports our work, with almost 120,000 followers on Facebook alone, and out brilliant team of volunteers does amazing work to make sure that the donations that are coming in reach our central hub as quickly as possible.

“We receive and process tens of thousands of items every year, which not only helps to give most of these pre-loved clothes a new lease of life, but which also reduces the amount of clothing that is going unnecessarily to landfill.

“Grants like this one from the Banks Group have a practical impact in terms of giving us the flexibility to buy in the extra items that we know that we’ll need, especially over the winter, and they also give us extra confidence that the work we’re doing is important enough to have won their support.”

Jamilah Hassan, community relations manager at County Durham-based Banks Group, added: “The Clothing Bank shows how much of a tangible impact grassroots charities can have with the right ideas and the right team to put them into action.

“The huge difference it’s made to thousands of local people’s lives in just six years is truly amazing and we’re very pleased to be able to play a part in the next chapter of its story.” 

“We’ve been working with the local community around Eggborough for more than five years and have so far provided more than £20,000 in grant funding to some fantastic local charities, groups and schools.”

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