Coventry baby bank 'battening down hatches' for lockdown three

[dutchman]

Parents that have been made redundant or are on furlough have been forced to seek help



The founder of a Coventry baby bank has spoken of the "steady rise" in numbers of families in need turning to the bank for help.

Baby Godiva is a baby bank in Coventry that supplies struggling families with wet wipes, nappies, formula, and baby clothes, and was established in June 2019 by Isabelle Edgar-McCabe.

With the country now in its third national lockdown, and schools closed to all but children of key workers, the pressure is back on local families.

In addition to extra heating, electricity, and broadband costs that come with home schooling, many families will still be recovering from the costs that came with Christmas.

That combined with the fact that some parents are on furlough or have been made redundant, has pushed more families in Coventry to ask for help at the baby bank.

Many families are making sacrifices and difficult choices every day, so it was no surprise to Baby Godiva founder Isabelle to see increased need in the area.

Speaking to CoventryLive she said: "Numbers have been rising steadily since March, staying in the 50s and 60s every month in terms of families that we are supporting. We've got close to ten families that we are supporting on a regular basis because their financial stability just isn't there, it's just going up and up. We're getting more referrals from social workers."

Families can also self refer using a google doc on the baby bank Facebook page, and those have gone up from 131 self-referrals over their first year of operations, to 208 self-referrals in just the last eight months.

Ms Edgar-McCabe explained the different types of families they are seeing.

She said: "We have four main demographics: the people we have always supported [affected by] poverty and destitution, we then have people who are at home shielding who can't get online deliveries of the items they need for their children, not necessarily because of panic buying but with how people are consuming.

"We then have people who are on furlough who are discovering 80% wages don't cover what they need, and now we have people who are being made redundant."

And how does she feel about this lockdown, is there anything they expect to see at the baby bank? "We are battening down the hatches and we are ready to face anything there is that is going to come out of this latest lockdown. I can't say it will be any less than the last one, demand for the service is growing and growing. The messages I received when we were closed for two weeks showed what we were going to be facing."