Number of families needing help from Leeds Baby Bank increases "massively" amid cost of living crisis

Based in Leeds city centre, the charity strives to ensure no child goes without by providing families with essentials such as milk and nappies.

When the charity was formed in 2017, they estimate to have been helping around 30 families per month. In May this year, Leeds Baby Bank say they had 210 families referred to their services.

"I’ve definitely seen an increase [in demand],” said charity manager Ellie Brown. “Our statistics show that we have increased every month while I’ve worked here in terms of the number of people needing our help.

"It’s massively increased. We get phone calls most days from families who can’t afford to buy nappies or baby milk for their children.

"Just in the five months I’ve worked here, I’ve noticed an increase in the frequency of those calls, of people directly asking for help.”

Ellie has worked at Leeds Baby Bank for five months, becoming involved as charity manager at a challenging time.

"Each phone call is a person struggling at the end of the phone,” she said. “It can be hard and you feel for those individuals because every parent wants to be able to feed and clothe their child so if they’re struggling to do that, your heart goes out to them.

"From our perspective, it’s about people struggling, living in poverty, we’ve seen that get worse as the cost of living crisis deepens.

"We’re seeing the very local effect of the cost of living crisis on these families.

"Clearly, something has to change."

The charity relies on donations from the public, of both money and pre-loved items.

"If people donate money that’s really helpful to us,” Ellie explained. “We can buy the items that we need, like cot mattresses, which have to be brand new.

"People also donate pre-loved items. The people of Leeds have always been amazing at doing that for us and there will always be a need for that sort of support.”

The team also venture out into the community every Thursday as part of their outreach service to visit various children’s centres and provide bags containing essentials to help families get by.

Constant communication with those struggling to afford to care for their children can take an emotional toll but the team members try to use it as motivation to help as many families as possible.

"I think it motivates us as a team – it’s why we’re here,” Ellie explained. “We hear people in need and we want to help them and we do our best to do that.

“It can be hard, we do hear upsetting stories, but we’re here to support those people.”

Amid the upset and frustration, however, there are tales of positivity.

Among the charity’s donors are families who have previously benefited from the service and are now keen to give back and extend a helping hand to others.

"What’s really nice is we have families who benefit from our service and then want to donate back those items to other families,” Ellie said. “It is really touching to see.”

Leeds Baby Bank is located in the St John’s Centre and can be contacted via e-mail ([email protected]).

Donations can be made via their official website – https://leedsbabybank.org/.