Wales’s first Multibank launches with aim of supporting 40,000 families this year
Melanie May | 7 March 2024 | News
Wales’s first Multibank has launched, with the aim of donating more than 300,000 surplus essential goods to 40,000 families in poverty this year.
It is being led by Swansea charity Faith in Families with support from Amazon, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Welsh Government, and Swansea Council.
The Multibank is called Cwtch Mawr, which means ‘Big Hug’ in English. It provides surplus essentials, such as warm clothes, hygiene products, school uniforms, and bedding donated by businesses, like Amazon, directly to those in need. The products are redistributed via Faith in Families to charity groups and care professionals who give them directly to people in need.
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Cwtch Mawr will process donations from a dedicated 6,000 sq. ft warehouse in Llansamlet, Swansea. Amazon helped set up the warehouse operations, providing logistical expertise, tech support, and five team members from its nearby Swansea fulfilment centre will work on-site for the first full year of operation. A range of organisations have provided funding to pay for rent and utilities, and to support the recruitment, salaries and training of additional staff, including Swansea Council, Pobl Housing Association, and The Moondance Foundation.
Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister, said:
“The cost-of-living crisis has for too many families become a real, day-in-day-out struggle to make ends meet because the money simply runs out before the end of each month. We have designed the Multibank initiative to accept returned, surplus or overruns of goods from UK companies and via local charity partners, like Faith in Families, we can get items like nappies, school uniforms, dusters, and duvets, straight into the hands of social workers, teachers, and health practitioners for social prescribing. The business partners who have joined our Coalition of Compassion are directly able to alleviate immediate need for warm clothes, hygiene products and essential household items to support those who need them at the time they actually need the help.”
Cwtch Mawr is the third Multibank established in the UK, an initiative co-founded by Gordon Brown and Amazon. The first Multibank launched in Fife, Scotland in 2022 and was followed by a second site in Wigan, Greater Manchester in 2023. The initiative has now donated more than 2 million surplus essential items to over 200,000 families in need. By the end of 2024, the project aims to support more than half a million families from a total of six Multibank sites across the UK.
Cherrie Bija, CEO of Faith in Families, said:
“When people come together to support each other we all will have a better life. Cwtch Mawr is a collaboration of different sectors wanting to bring hope and support to those who face some of the most challenging situations in life, right here in our communities. This big Welsh Hug can be transformational for Swansea and South Wales. From gifting children with brand-new football boots so that they can take part in their school team, to maternity packs for new Mums so they can have dignity going into hospital, these things really matter. People are barely surviving right now, children are normalising discomfort and hunger, individuals are facing hopeless situations. Cwtch Mawr will make a difference in people’s lives and for the planet, a real anti-poverty, anti-pollution, engagement solution.”
This latest Multibank project has already supported more than 7,000 families in Swansea with the donation of more than 40,000 goods since donations started to arrive in late 2023. Community support organisations, schools and colleges, homeless shelters, and elderly support services in the area have taken delivery of essential supplies from Cwtch Mawr, including Swansea Council’s social services, Llamau, Swansea Asylum Seekers Support, and Swansea Young Families.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.