We have been totally humbled by the amount of generous donations we’ve received since we set up Baby Bank Norfolk just twelve months ago. It was only when we finally found a home to store all the donations in that the true magnitude of what we’ve been given was revealed. The generosity and kindness of local people, businesses and organisations has been a welcome reminder of how people really do want to help others who find themselves in difficult circumstances.

So, where is our new home? We are delighted to say we are now based at Greenfield Community Centre on Ives Road in Norwich. The team at this vibrant community hub have been so supportive and we are incredibly grateful for their patience and support whilst we worked to get ourselves organised in this new space.

It took a team of very dedicated volunteers a good few late nights over the summer to sort through everything we had and shift it over to Greenfield. They worked tirelessly to put up and arrange shelving that made the best of the space we had. With donations continuing to come in through into autumn it seemed like we would never get to a point where we were completely sorted. We took the decision in autumn to stop taking donations to enable us to get organised and see where we had gaps in our donations. Plus we were simply running out of space…

This break meant that in just a few weeks we were able to work our way through the (literal) mountains of clothes and toys, checking each item carefully for size and condition.  Every item of clothing has to be washed before we store it and each toy needs to be checked that it’s working correctly, and has all the right pieces and batteries if necessary.

We are delighted to say that we now have a storage facility that suits us perfectly with neatly arranged boxes and shelves of sorted items, all easily accessible for the referrals we are putting together on a weekly basis. A big thank you again to Greenfield – we couldn’t have helped so many families this year without you.