Former prime minister Gordon Brown has told a Commonwealth event in London how an idea born in Fife could help struggling families across the UK.
Mr Brown was joined by Comic Relief to make an urgent plea to big business, philanthropists and local UK charities to support the expansion of the “multibank” initiative, which gets essentials to families in need.
Speaking at Marlborough House, the headquarters of the Commonwealth, Mr Brown invited socially conscious businesses to join a ‘coalition of compassion’ and donate surplus essential goods and money to accelerate the national rollout of the multibank platform.
Mr Brown said the UK was facing a winter of crisis with poverty in Britain on a scale he “never thought we’d see again”.
He told The Courier: “The need is very great and it is growing. We are seeing poverty we have never seen before in my lifetime.”
How does the Fife multibank work?
First established in the Kingdom, which has one of the worst child poverty rates in the UK, so-called multibanks allow businesses to donate unused goods to families in need.
Over half a million essentials such as nappies, toilet rolls, toothpaste and school uniforms have been donated through the Big Hoose project, founded by the Cottage Family Centre near Kirkcaldy.
With support from the former prime minister the Cottage Centre partnered with Amazon, who have a fulfilment centre in Dunfermline, as well as other big businesses including Tesco, Hilton Hotels, PepsiCo and Morrisons.
In addition to hundreds of thousands of goods, Amazon also provided a cash grant of £150,000 and ongoing support with staffing and logistics expertise.
John Boumphrey, UK country manager for Amazon, said that for every £1 the company invested in the Big Hoose they saw a social return of £5.95.
The group uses a warehouse in Lochgelly donated by the Purvis Group to bank surplus items before they are distributed.
Bob Gamory of the Fife-based construction firm emphasised that it was not just multinational companies that could help.
He said: “No business needs to be told why this support is needed, what they need is the solutions to help.”
Mr Brown said: “We have got some great suppliers locally. PepsiCo, Fishers Laundry and Amazon are all companies with branches in Fife.
‘Emergency action’ needed
“They are helping us and we’ve now been able to work with Dundee Bairns and we are hoping to be able to provide a service for people in Dundee with these basic essentials.”
Northwood, the charitable trust of The Courier’s publisher DC Thomson, also supports the initiative.
Gordon Brown hopes to accelerate the project’s growth, saying emergency action is needed.
He said: “Children cannot be made to pay in their life chances and from their very earliest years for the continuing cost of living crisis.
“The success of our multibanks in Fife and Wigan shows big business can make substantial differences to families’ ability to care for their children which is a benefit to us all in future.
“I am very grateful to Amazon for co-founding the ground-breaking multibank model and helping to encourage other businesses to donate their products that would otherwise have gone to waste.
“I’m also grateful for the generous support of the Orchard, Robertson, Northwood and Souter foundations, Ajaz.org and the Ainscough family for underwriting start-up costs of our multibank initiatives.
“And I’m delighted to welcome Comic Relief to our coalition of compassion, helping us to lift even more families out of material poverty whilst at the same time helping reduce waste and promote recycling and reuse of products.”
Comic Relief and Amazon have jointly seeded £1 million to the multibank initiative, with a projected £13 million needed to open more across the UK.
Mr Brown added: “I call on all companies to give what they can – surplus goods or money – to support this important initiative against poverty.
“We have a particular need for household cleaning and hygiene goods so that children don’t need to be sent to school unwashed and without clean teeth.”
Conversation