Mother and son launch clothing bank to help those struggling to make ends meet
A mother and son are so concerned about families and individuals struggling to fund clothes they are setting up a clothing bank.
Sam Marshall from Hodnet and her 12-year-old son, Elliot, have launched the Shropshire Community Clothing Bank.
They described the project as "think of food banks but for clothing instead".
They hope to hold their first event in Market Drayton at the beginning of March and are looking for donations and volunteers.
Sam said both she and her son had been worried about the increase in the cost of living.
"Elliot talked about what we could do to help and the idea for a clothing bank came up," he said.
"A significant proportion of our population use food banks and there is substantial publicity that surrounds them, but perhaps we forget that although we need food to survive, we need clothes too.
"In particular, families of growing children can find clothing costs overwhelming - some are fortunate to rely on ‘hand-me-downs’ for their children, but what about them for themselves?
"Shropshire has a rich, rural image but there are many in our county community that struggle and there is a growing amount of people who may have reasonably good jobs and are seen to be reasonably well-off but underneath are finding financial life harder and harder, and the choices they have to make become more profound.
"They must think 'what do we cut this month to buy new school shoes' or 'what can we cut over the next couple of months to buy new winter coats'."
She said that although the first event would be in north Shropshire because of logistics, people were welcome from outside the area, whether to volunteer or to take advantage of the free clothing.
"We also need storage space and storage containers, clothes rails, coat hangers, flyers/leaflets printed and leaflet drops, willing volunteers to go to certain places to advertise the event such as local swimming pools/supermarkets and if anyone can assist financially, then costs will include potential hire fees, printing, travel expenses and refreshments."
Anyone interested can find out more via the Shropshire Community Clothing Bank's Facebook Page.
