⚡️⚡️THIS IS OUR NEW JUSTGIVING PAGE, SET UP AS WE NEED MORE SUPPORT ESPECIALLY WHILST HELPING WITH THE REFUGEES FROM AFGHANISTAN⚡️⚡️

Hi, my name is Magdalen and since February 2021 I have been facilitating and coordinating the Community Clothes Bank and the project now needs your help. Please do read our story below and contact me if you have any questions at all. Thank you.

Why do we need a Clothes Bank?

We’re a Community Clothes Bank based in Whitstable providing free clothes to those that need them. We hate waste and love seeing second-hand clothes going to new homes where they’re needed most. More people in the UK have been forced into poverty due to the pandemic, since we started this project 6 months ago, we’ve supported over 932 people who have needed them from Whitstable, Canterbury, Herne Bay and Faversham. We have supported those who are financially struggling from growing families, keyworkers, refugees, to those who have been seriously ill, escaping domestic violence and many more. But we know, sadly, there’s many more that need our help. We are now working with many outreach organisations and support them with their clients needs. We have also grown to support many other parts of Kent who don't have this kind of project and will soon be doing regular events in Thanet

Why we are asking for your help

During lockdown we’ve had a temporary home at The Whitstable Umbrella Community Centre (WUCC) who kindly allowed us to sort, organise and store the 1.4 tonnes of clothes and shoes kindly donated to us in their hall. We’ve also had a wonderful team of volunteers washing and mending the clothes plus helping with delivering the clothing bundles. As lockdown measures eased, the centre has re-opened its doors to the community and so we are on the hunt for a more permanent home so we can continue helping our community. In the meantime we have hired 2 storage units and organised a ‘mobile’ clothes bank, popping up in various community halls that we have hired for the day. So we’re asking you, if you can, to donate to ensure our survival and help us reach more vulnerable people that need this service in this next stage of our project.

(photo: as you can see we really more storage solutions!)

(Photo: we have some fantastic volunteers that help the project in all kinds of ways)

How your donation will help:

1) Keep a roof over our heads: We have a fantastic stockpile of clothes ready to go out to those who need them, so we’re now renting a few storage units which costs £500+ per month. Your donation will mean we can keep them safe and dry, as well as enable us to process and store more clothes donated to us. We also need to cover items like insurance, laundry materials and other running costs.

2) Reach more people in need: we need money for petrol, hall hire, van hire and other basic costs to run these events for those who need these clothes and shoes. We also need money to buy new packs of underwear and socks for men, women and kids and now new pyjamas and jogging bottoms for men too. We literally cannot keep enough of any of these in stock for the people who need them.

We estimate we need about £3,000 to take us through the next stage, which will enable us to continue providing a much-needed service in our local community over the next 6 months and beyond. The more funding we can get the more people we can help. We intend to be fully transparent and will be posting on our facebook page on all the purchases we make, the people that we help etc.

Thank you for your support

We really need your help and support to make this project grow and would love it if you could share our story with others and donate if you can. THANK YOU SO MUCH for reading our story and for all your support xxx

You can find out more about us at:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Community-Clothes-Bank-104509675001352

Instagram: www.instagram.com/communityclothesbank/