Update on Our National Lottery Grant

We recently completed a report for our grant from the National Lottery. Have a read through to see what's been going on since we received the grant!

December Newsletter

We're a bit late in getting this out to you so please accept our apologies but its been a busy old time!

December was an extremely busy month for us. Not only were we busy handing out bundles of clothing, equipment and everyday essentials but we also distributed our Christmas bags.

We had a really great response to people donating the bags, we had a great range of ages donated and were lucky to get a special grant from the Mayor of Bicester to cover any ages that we didn't have.

Schools, health visitors, midwives and support workers worked hard to give us lists of families to support. We ended up giving 229 bags to children across Oxfordshire! Such an amazing achievement and a joint community success also!

Thank you so much to everyone who supported the scheme.

The picture is an example

of one of the bundles

going out to a family in need.

In December we also found out that we won the Charity and Community award at the Cherwell Business Awards!! We were so excited just to be nominated so to actually win was just amazing!

Because of Covid the the normal gala dinner couldn't go ahead so onto zoom it was!

During the day the wonderful people from Oxford Fine Dining dropped off a hamper full of goodies to enjoy on the evening.

We were up against two other brilliant charities - Clean Slate and The Sunshine Centre, who were both very deserving too. We didn't think we'd win as a new charity and not yet being as established as the other two.

Thank you so much to Tami from Nicholsons for believing in and us and for all her support.

Well done to the fantastic team at Baby Bank. We have the best volunteers who work so hard and dedicate so much time to the charity.

We hope that 2021 brings families back together and that you all keep safe and healthy.

Keep safe everyone.

Debbie

What's New With Us

Our First Newsletter: New Premises

Hello! And welcome to our first newsletter!

So, I didn’t think this first post would be during a world pandemic but there you go! I hope you are all keeping safe and alert during these scary, weird, and unprecedented times.

Since lockdown we have been incredibly busy. We have helped over 35 families with equipment, clothing but especially nappies, wipes, food and formula that families are either struggling to get due to being directly affected by the virus with losing jobs or with others stockpiling and not being able to get hold of certain items.

We have also helped the family that unfortunately had their flat driven into on the Bucknell Road and was then deemed unsafe and the family were not allowed back in. We were able to kit them out with everything they needed when going into hospital the following day! We all hope you and your little one are doing well and adjusting to your new lives.

We were also able to help a little boy who had sustained awful injuries through no fault of his own. He really needed a small trampoline, sensory toys and some sensory lights to enhance his everyday life. We had 4 incredibly kind and generous people step forward and give us money so we could purchase these for him. They were extremely grateful and I hear he’s loving his new toys!

We have also been able to help a family, who had just moved to the area, kit out their entire flat! They desperately needed a washing machine and a very kind person came forward and donated one. It always amazes me just how kind and fabulous the Bicester community is!!

We have been really lucky to receive grants from Tesco bags of help, Bicester town council and Bicester district council to help us pay towards our new premises and to help buy stock to replenish us i.e nappies, wipes, food, formula etc.

Without these fantastic grants our charity would really struggle with cash flow.

We have also had a great amount donated to us by Bicester and Oxford masons. They have been really helpful and are hoping to carry on helping us in the future. The wives are even knitting us blankets, hats and mittens! So a huge thank you to them for all their help.

We have had a very large grant from the National Lottery put on hold during the pandemic so these grants and anymore that we find will really help us out with payments for the new premises whilst that one is on hold.

The Period Poverty charity also gave us some formula and body wash and the Hygiene bank also gave us 2 huge pallets of nappies and wipes! Fantastic!

Our main news is that we have finally moved premises!! We are now at Cinch Self Storage which is on Arkwright Rd, just off the Churchill Rd. We still have the garages as an overflow and are always grateful to Sanctuary Housing for letting us have those, but being able to run from one place will make mine and the volunteers lives a lot less stressful!

I want tot say a huge thank you to Richard at Cinch for being incredibly patient and understanding with us over the past few months. He has done everything he possibly could to help us and I’m really grateful to him.

When we are back open for donations, full details will be given re days\times etc.

We had so much planned for this year, our quiz nights, market day stalls, the charity ball, a comedy night, blue token charity at Tesco, a Cherwell nomination award night for the best charity and lots more! COVID-19 has put a halt on these for the time being, but as soon as we can and its safe we will have them back up and running!

The last bit of news we have has to be this website! I’m so pleased that its finally up and running. I hope it gives you all the info you need regarding items we accept and don’t accept, times and opportunities with us.

I personally want to say a HUGE thank you to Amy Taylor for spending so much time with me to get it up and running. I really, really appreciate all the time and effort you spent on it.

Lastly, please do get in contact with us via Facebook, email, or on the web chat if you are experiencing any type of hardship during these strange times. Also, if we can help in any other way at all with mental health, domestic violence or just to lend a listening ear, please do get in contact.

Stay safe and take care

Debbie

Chair Trustee