​Little Treasures to receive £28,000 Lottery funding

​Founder Sue Bain set up the Little Treasures baby bank in 2019 while still working for the WI Federation after seeing a report on the local news about a baby bank in Beverley, Yorkshire.

"We sat down and realised there wasn’t anything like this in Lincolnshire, and we decided to see if there was a way we could start offering this service here,” she said.

"So we went up to Beverley to chat to the lady up there and asked how she did it, and we decided we could do it too.”

Sue then got in touch with the local health visitor and social services to see if there would be the need for such a service here in and around Horncastle, to which the answer was a resounding yes.

Sue and some volunteers then hired out the WI hall in Horncastle with an appeal to the community for donations.

"People came pouring in,” Sue said, “they were offering us all sorts of stuff, my dining room and spare room at home were absolutely full to bursting!”

Six months later in 2020, the baby bank then received their first National Lottery funding grant which allowed them to acquire and pay the rent on their new unit on Horncastle’s industrial estate, and now three years later, they have received more funding.

Their £28,000 from the Lottery, spread over five years, will be so helpful in helping the team to pay their bills, rent and overheads as they are all volunteers, they have no income coming in.

"We have no income apart from any grants we receive,” Sue explained, “We’ve had some brilliant donations from the Lincolnshire Freemasons and we were Co-op’s community champions before which was a big help.”

Little Treasures offers baby equipment, supplies, and aids to those in need in the Horncastle area, supporting families with children from birth up to the age of five years old, working on a referral basis.

"We’ll help anyone who is referred to us, whether its from social services, the health visitors, schools, children’s centres, social workers, anyone.”

Little Treasures, Sue said, is inundated with children’s clothing, and they have a huge supply of most things including pushchairs and prams, bottles, toys, blankets, and bedding, but what they are currently in desperate need of is cots, cot beds, and stairgates.

These can be donated to Little Treasures on Mondays, but please contact Sue first to arrange a drop off.

Volunteers are also needed for the baby bank, to help either with fundraising events such as table top sales, or with distributions. Sue said: “Even if people can just spare an hour, we’d be so grateful for some more help.”

Any one who would be interested in volunteering for Little Treasures baby bank, or to arrange a drop-off of equipment, email Sue at [email protected] or visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/littletreasuresbabybank/