COST OF LIVING: Derbyshire baby charity helping record number of people
The charity was set up to help families in Buxton but now reaches as far as Stockport and Stoke-on-Trent
A charity in High Peak is helping more families than ever before, as the cost-of-living crisis continues to worsen.
'High Peak Baby Bank' was set up during the pandemic, and helped people in Buxton, but now the charity are helping families as far as Stockport and Stoke-on-Trent.
Other charities across the country say the UK is facing a potential public health crisis because of the huge rise in the cost of formula milk.
Some parents are so desperate they're stealing it from supermarkets to keep their babies fed.
Kirsty Jackson, the CEO of 'High Peak Baby Bank' said: "Things that people are asking for is changing. It's not just baby clothes that people need all the time now, it is formula, the feeding equipment, prams, and it is just getting busier and busier and we're finding that the area we are working in is growing rapidly as well."
She said working families are now heavily affected too: "I have to use a baby bank quite a lot, and both myself and my partner work. Everybody's feeling the pinch but parents more so, in my opinion, because everything is so expensive. when you've got children who are constantly out-growing their clothes it's just such a massive expense on top of everything else.
"We've just seen a rise in people who are doing everything they can, they are working as much as they can, trying to put food on the table."
Kirsty said parents are using dangerous alternatives: "We've had some people who just go on to try and give their children's cows milk far too early, or water, or topping up by filling bottles up with porridge oats and things to try and fill them for longer.