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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
Keiran Fleming

Glasgow charity providing school uniforms to struggling families closes due to lack of funds

A uniform bank based in north Glasgow is shutting its doors after helping thousands of families across the city over the last five years.

The charity, Glasgow's Pre Loved Uniforms, was founded by Donna Henderson in February of 2017 and originally began in Balornock school, where her children were pupils.

However, the lack of funds mean the support provided to parents in a number of schools will no longer be available come mid-January.

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Speaking to Glasgow Live, Donna said: "We don't have any money to carry on.

"We were hoping for other premises but that's not happened so unfortunately we don't have the money to pay the rent and our bills.

"We always hoped that something would come through but we weren't successful in the past couple of funding applications we made."

During their half decade in operation, the uniform bank provided a vital service to families who may be struggling financially and with winter around the corner, warm clothing will be crucial for children walking to school.

The founder said: "We've expanded to 31 schools across the city and supplied them with a rail of uniform.

"We have helped thousands. Covid played a huge part because our service wasn't fully utilised due to parents not having access to school buildings.

"Some of the school janitors put the rails outside so people could take some items when picking up the kids. We had rails in three Co-op stores, there were organisations in the community that had a rail from us as well, so families using the facilities could have access to uniforms.

"In winter we would supply jackets, wellies, boots, girls' tights, gloves, vests, so we could ensure children could get to school warm and dry.

"We would do pop up events where kids would come along and choose the jacket themselves and picked out the hat they liked, it was great for them to choose.

"It not only helped families financially, there was an environmental aspect as well, we stopped school uniforms from being binned, because a lot of charity shops won't accept badged items.

"All we wanted at the beginning is for families to save money on school uniform regardless of their financial background. Making sure every school child is equal when they go to school.

"During the summer holidays we helped 251 families, which for a small charity like us is a huge amount."

Jackets are available in the winter (Supplied)

Donna believes that the amount parents have to pay for uniforms can be overlooked.

Her biggest concern is that during these tough times families will have to sacrifice buying suitable school clothing to pay for bills.

"People won't see the importance of school uniform, so people are quick to judge and say 'why do they need free school uniform? They get a clothing grant.' But not all families are entitled to a clothing grant," she said.

"A lot of our families who use our service are families who are in work.

"It might be an item of clothing is damaged and the parents don't get paid until two weeks time, so they don't have money in their budget for the next couple weeks to buy a brand new pair of trousers.

"It's fine to say that supermarkets have cheap uniform but after the summer holidays and schools return a lot of the shops have a reduced amount of uniform in stock and 99 per cent of it will be out of stock online, so where do families go?

"If they can't buy they come to us because they know we will have it. If a parent has a problem budgeting and receives a clothing grant there is no guarantee that is used on uniform and the kids lose out.

"It can lead to bullying. We had a call from a head teacher the day after schools went back and she was looking for a pair of shoes, a wee girl was wearing shoes from the year before and that day the strap burst and the teacher knew the family couldn't afford a new pair.

"They called us and luckily we could supply a pair. People don't realise how important it is, especially this winter.

"If you have the choice of heating and eating or buying school uniform, the priority isn't going to be school uniform."

After the effort put into building the charity and helping families across the city, Donna is struggling to comprehend that this support will no longer be available next year.

The service will stop mid-January (Supplied)

Donna said: "It's absolutely heart-breaking we have come to this but I don't think we will be the only charity that'll end up folding over the next year.

"We met the board and trustees and we couldn't see any other way forward.

"I feel the government and the councils need to look at how to support smaller organisations and charities because over the years there have been so many cuts to vital council services.

"A number of organisations are now doing the work the council would have done in the past. There is a lot of organisations that don't get support from the council and government and we are one of them."

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