Little Bundles Baby Bank starts fundraiser after losing venue

A baby bank which provides clothes, toiletries, prams and other must-haves for young parents has started a fundraising campaign for a new venue after being told it would lose its premises.
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Based in Littlehampton and serving communities throughout Chichester and the Arun District, the Little Bundles baby bank works on a referral basis, providing goods to midwives, foodbanks, refuge and family centres, which pass them on to those in need.

Now at risk of losing its premises, volunteers have started an online fundraiser to secure a long-term venue and, with it, the future of the service.

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“We have been lucky to have some storage premises for the last 18 months, but now we have to vacate them. So, for us it’s about future proofing our service because it’s grown so much over the course of the pandemic and we want to carry on being able to provide that service to families in the future,” said Alice Duckworth, branch co-ordinator of the National Childbirth Trust in West Sussex, which operates the Little Bundles Baby Bank.

A little Bundles volunteer delivering bags of essential items to the birthing centre at St Richard's Hospital, Chichester MT9lU9G9Cow-2aApTG70A little Bundles volunteer delivering bags of essential items to the birthing centre at St Richard's Hospital, Chichester MT9lU9G9Cow-2aApTG70
A little Bundles volunteer delivering bags of essential items to the birthing centre at St Richard's Hospital, Chichester MT9lU9G9Cow-2aApTG70

Given the baby bank processed more than 400 referrals in 2020, with even more demand so far this year, that’s an incredibly noble aim.

The fundraiser’s goal currently sits at £15,000, a figure which Ms Duckworth, 40, hopes will help the branch expand, giving it the chance to rent a more sustainable property from which to conduct its work.

“We haven’t done this sort of thing before, we’ve been really lucky to benefit from favours and get stuff from friends, so for us it’s about making sure we definitely know we’ll be around for the next five years,” she said.

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More than simply sustaining the baby bank’s future, Ms Duckworth also hopes the new premises will help Little Bundles expand its provision of service to school uniforms and other essentials they don’t currently have the room to provide- making it an even more valuable asset to the community.

To find out more about the Little Bundles Baby Bank, visit its Facebook page or click here to visit the online fundraiser.