Clothing charity in Coventry receives £10,000 to help families prepare for new school year
More than 700 children in Coventry have been provided with new school uniform ahead of September.
Coventry Building Society has donated £10,000 to help up to 1,000 students receive new school uniform ahead of September.
The donation has been made to Clothing Coventry, a charity dedicated to tackling clothing poverty in the city, after the Society recognised that buying new school uniform is a key concern for many families.
Clothing Coventry collects and recycles used school uniforms, while also buying new items when monetary donations are given.
The donation from the Society will be used to replenish the supply of high-demand items, such as secondary school blazers and school shoes.
Clothing Coventry has been operating a pop-up shop over the summer at the Salvation Army, in Coventry city centre.
The shop is open every Tuesday and Thursday from 10am-2pm.
Families can freely collect quality school uniforms, and while donations are very welcome – particularly donations of old school uniform - they are not essential.
Anna Cuskin, Community Manager at Coventry Building Society, said: "Clothing Coventry are doing a tremendous job of getting seasonally appropriate clothing to those most in need in our community. With back-to-school season upon us, we wanted to show our support with a donation which will help ease the burden for families who may be worried about uniform costs.
"We hope this gesture inspires others to join us with donations wherever they can, so that together we can help every child start the new school year with pride."
Katie Wilson, Founder of Clothing Coventry, said: "The average cost of compulsory school uniform is £101.19 which is a crippling amount to a family already in poverty. We’ve seen children missing school because they’re ashamed of how they look, and parents crying because they can’t afford items of uniform.
"We really appreciate this amazing donation from Coventry Building Society, which had all our team in tears of gratitude, but the popularity of the uniform bank means we still need donations of second hand uniform. We know there is much second hand uniform available in the community, it just needs distributing accordingly."
She continued: "The uniform bank is only part of what Clothing Coventry does. We support up to 500 people a month with clothes and shoe parcels, and we work with partner charities to distribute clothes onto rails in food banks, food hubs, homeless accommodations, hotels with refugees, family centres and many more locations city wide.
"We always need donations of good quality adult and children’s clothes and shoes age 1+, and at the minute we particularly need men’s clothes."
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