Eggborough’s Clothing Bank charity gets £2,000 Banks Group grant boost

A North Yorkshire clothing charity that helped more than 10,000 people last year has received a four-figure funding boost.

The Clothing Bank delivers essential clothing and other items in high-quality, seven-day clothing packs that help to meet the urgent needs of children, young people and adults in crisis.

The charity has built a network of more than 100 drop-off points for pre-loved clothes right across the county which are managed by a team of committed volunteers.

The £2,000 grant from developer the Banks Group’s Banks Community Fund is now being used to pay for extra items including coats for children and adults, waterproof or warm footwear, nightwear, new underwear and socks in all sizes, plus-size items and school essentials such as polo shirts and bags.

These will be used to supplement the donated items that it receives and will allow for dozens more clothing packs to be gathered and distributed to those that require them as the charity works to keep up with ever-growing community need.

The Clothing Bank was founded in 2020 by friends Susan Bell and Sally Parkinson, who recognised a gap in the support available to those struggling to afford clothes and who both had their own personal experiences of living in poverty.

The charity began with just a few volunteer clothing drop-off points between friends’ houses in and around North Yorkshire, and with demand growing very quickly, Susan and Sally had set up the Clothing Bank Cabin in Brotherton within a year to hold stock for future seasons and plan ahead more effectively.

Any garments that can’t be repurposed are sent to be recycled, with the money earned from this helping to cover The Clothing Bank’s running costs.

Most of the charity’s work is carried out across Yorkshire, but The Clothing Bank also accepts requests for help from anywhere else in the country.

Co-founder Sally Parkinson says: “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.”

The Banks Group is the business behind plans for the development of a landmark integrated extension to the west of Eggborough, which will deliver up to 1,500 new homes, enhanced local transport links, assisted living units, new areas of accessible public open space, other local services and a range of environmental benefits.

Jamilah Hassan, community relations manager at the Banks Group, adds: “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.”

Anyone from a community close to a Banks Group project who is interested in applying for funding for a community project should contact the company via its website enquiry form (www.banksgroup.co.uk/contact-us/) to find out if their group or project is eligible.