A Manchester based fashion business has teamed up with one of the North East’s biggest charities to support vulnerable parents.
Whispering Smith joined forces with baby bank Clothe and Feed to produce a scheme which has seen surplus supplies of children’s clothes handed over to hard-pressed mums and dads.
Clothe And Feed, which has seen demand rise during the cost of living crisis, also assists parents and vulnerable children by providing them with baby equipment and toiletries.
Commenting on the new partnership, Rob Turnbull, who runs Clothe And Feed in Newcastle, said: “We run programmes to equip young mums and victims of domestic abuse coming from migrant backgrounds, by providing things like baby equipment, baby clothes, children’s clothes.
“We’ve just undertaken a project where we gave away about 300 warm winter coats completely free.
“We’ve probably had a dozen or more boxes from Whispering Smith. It’s worked well and we’re very happy. It all finds a good home within two or three weeks, tops.
“The cost of these items is prohibitively expensive for many families across our region and often children go without the necessities many of us take for granted. We really appreciate this support. ”
Whispering Smith director Rohina Kumar, said: “We are delighted to support Clothe and Feed which provides such a lifeline service. Whispering Smith has a long tradition of helping charities and good causes, and this will continue in the future.”
This is the second charity partnership Whispering Smith has entered into recent months, after helping to champion people with disabilities by working with Manchester-based The Friendship Circle.
It helped fund a fashion show in September designed to promote greater visibility for disabled and visibly different models in the fashion industry.
The show featured Ellie Goldstein, the Down Syndrome model who has fronted campaigns for Gucci and Adidas.
Whispering Smith was founded in 1967 and is the one of the country’s biggest creators and distributors of clothing for high street retailers and has since grown into one of the largest suppliers of young fashion across the globe.