Bundles of Joy is a local charity aiming to help relieve poverty and support disadvantaged babies, children and families through providing clothes, toys, prams, cots, other baby equipment, toiletries and nappies.  We normally achieve this through receiving donations from the local community throughout Beverley, Hull and East Riding and passing them on to families in need. These families can be those affected by poverty, crisis, illness or domestic abuse. During the current Covid 19 situation we have now got many restrictions in place regarding donations BUT we are still open for referrals.

We at Bundles of Joy understand there are many reasons a family may be referred to us, but we do not judge or question the referral. Each person is assessed on their individual need and situation. This is done by us cementing good working relationships with many health professionals, Children’s centres, charities, domestic abuse partnerships etc. As trained workers they identify when Bundles of Joy will be able to make a difference. During this difficult time, it’s very much the basic needs that children and babies need meeting. Just toiletries go a long way in doing this.

Since the charity was launched in 2016 the number of professionals referring into the service across Hull and the local area has increased exceptionally as word has spread about the work we do. We aspire to continue our growth and our referral statistics are evidence of the charities expanding use to meet people’s basic needs. We are averaging helping 80 families a month at the moment however March saw us reach out to 96 families alone.

We have noticed since the Covid 19 lockdown that people are still very much in need of things due to self-isolation, the impact on early panic buying a few weeks ago and also some job losses, wage reductions and the likes.

One thing I am prepared for as the founder is the increase on the service once regulations are relaxed slightly and things return to normal. By this I mean when all the children centres, the clinics, the home visits and the likes start to open and run again we will see a lot of families struggling and needing extra help. Sadly, domestic abuse cases will increase which is incredibly sad but these types of situations will affect the domestic abuse numbers. There is bound to be a baby boom in 9 months’ time too impacting on the service.

Due to the lockdown we are not able to do any fundraising which is crucial to us to be able to cover our core costs and things that grants and funding doesn’t cover. We are lucky that we will still be able to function meaning our referrals can still be actioned. I have already had to buy items we wouldn’t necessarily buy but there’s no point in us having money in the bank when babies and children’s basic needs need to be cared for. After all they are the children and people of the future.

Bundles of Joy can help and will continue to help and I am proud to say We make a difference and We change lives.

Please keep up to date on what we are doing on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BundlesOfJoyCharity/