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HELPING HAND

Our baby bank only has enough funding to run until Christmas – the 600 families we serve need your help

Josie O'Brien

Published: 9:11, 24 Jul 2023
Updated: 9:59, 25 Jul 2023

WHEN Tracey Morgan started running a baby bank from her charity’s headquarters in January 2018, she never could have imagined there would be 600 families on the database within five years.

Splice was originally a non-profit family centre where parents, carers and children could go to play, learn the ropes of parenthood and receive support.

Tracey Morgan had no idea how big her baby bank would becomeCredit: Splice Child and Family

The team at Splice up Moses baskets with nappies, toys and baby clothes for expectant mumsCredit: Splice Child and Family

But a package from a local food bank changed everything and now the team helps hundreds of families stay afloat each week.

“It snowballed from there,” Tracey, 57, says. “I’m someone who will never turn anything down if it might be able to help someone.

“I thought, we’ll trial a baby bank for six weeks and see what the demand is like.

“And I mean, even back then, the demand was massive.”

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They also provide food, such as noodles, tinned vegetables and tinned meats, in some of their packages.

What they provide is tailored to the request of each family, and a package can be worth up to £200.

The baby bank works on a direct and referral basis, and offers deliveries to people in need who are unable to collect, with around 60% of their users self-referring for the service.

Tracey and her team were initially serving the village of Pyle in Bridgend, Wales, before the demand in the Covid-19 got so big that they expanded to serving the entire Bridgend borough - which has a population of nearly 50,000 people.

She thought the demand may decrease when lockdown lifted, but the cost of living crisis has meant “this is sadly not the case”.

What are baby banks?

- Baby banks provide essential items for babies and young children whose parents are living in poverty – including nappies, wipes, clothing, bedding, Moses baskets, cots, blankets, toys and books.
- There are over 200 baby banks in the UK, and they run out of shops, community centres, warehouse units and even people’s living rooms and garages.
- Last year 4.2 million children in the UK were living in poverty and 800,000 children lived in a household that used a food or baby bank.

“Our numbers tripled during the pandemic,” Tracey says. “We were seeing different families then, and the needs became different, even if it was just for food on the table.

“Now, there’s 600 families on our database at the moment.

“Some of them we’ll only hear from once a month when they hit crisis point and they need us, and others use us every week.

“It’s just heartbreaking.”

Tracey notes that “an awful lot of expectant parents” need moses baskets filled with supplies to get them ready for their babies, such as nappies and wipes.

She has helped families with as many as eight children where both parents are working full-time but still unable to cover their rent, let alone afford nappies and clothes.

Splice’s help is also tailored to children with additional needs, as well as parents suffering with poor mental health.

“We’ve helped suicidal mums and suicidal dads,” Tracey says. “You name it, we see it.

“It’s hard. You wouldn’t think it would still go on in this day and age where you go to a house and they don’t have any furniture, or any carpet on the floor.”

Splice is an acronym for the social, physical, linguistic, intellectual, cultural, emotional aspects of a growing child’s development.

It’s also derived from the charity’s core value of “splicing together the families who we are privileged to work with”.

“We will never turn any family away and we’ll do this for as long as we can,” Tracey says. “But we only have enough to keep going until Christmas at the moment, unless we can get more funding in.

Our baby bank only has enough funding to run until Christmas – the 600 families we serve need your help

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