Baby banks see demand double as parents struggle to get essentials

THE number of British mums struggling to provide for their children with bare essentials, including nappies and winter clothing, has skyrocketed during the pandemic, with many baby banks seeing double their usual demand.

Leading baby bank Little Village, which is like a foodbank but for baby essentials, has revealed they recently helped their 6000th child this year, a number shockingly up from just 3000 in 2019.

CEO Sophia Parker, who claims child poverty in Britain is a “national crisis”, said,

“The pandemic has made what was already a really bad situation much, much worse.

“We just supported our 6000th child. When you think in 2019 we supported 3000, we have already doubled that number. And I think a lot of that is related to Covid.

“One in four of the families that we’ve seen since lockdown have been referred to us because they’ve experienced some sort of economic hardship related to Covid.

Families were already only just about coping. All it takes is one small drop in income that precipitates a crisis.”

The charity provides essentials for children under five across London, and this year has donated 1919 winter coats, 1480 pairs of shoes, 1579 cots and 826 buggies to families struggling to make ends meet so far this year.

Founder Hilary Johnston told the Mirror,  “We have had more women fleeing domestic abuse and leaving with nothing.”

“People have been forced out of work and more people have been forced below the poverty line.

“They are really struggling, they can’t afford food and clothes. And now there is a baby boom coming.”

Thank you for taking the time to read this news article “Baby banks see demand double as parents struggle to get essentials”. For more UK daily news, Spanish daily news and Global news stories, visit the Euro Weekly News home page.