[ad_1]
A mum-of-five who faced a £600 bill to send her kids back to school set up a £1 swap shop to trade outgrown uniforms with other parents.
Natalie Lek, from Blackburn, started the school uniform exchange to encourage parents to take a stance against the soaring costs of new school uniforms.
Recent figures have suggested UK parents spend £1.2bn on back to school supplies, with the average cost of a brand new uniform estimated to be about £230 per child.
Natalie, who has three kids at school, set up the exchange with volunteers from The Launch Project, a charity she runs to help the homeless community in Greater Manchester.
She told Metro.co.uk ‘We have had 100 orders in the last eight weeks. If the uniform is in excellent condition it costs £1.50, and if it’s in good condition it’s £1.
‘The money gets invested back into the homeless fund. A lot of uniform exchanges have been set up by groups of mums and dads and they give stuff out for free.
‘This is different because we ask for a contribution. It works because people in the community want to donate so they don’t just feel like they are being given a hand out, especially as the money goes to the homeless.’
Natalie’s School Uniform Exchange is open to any parent in the Greater Manchester area, no matter what their financial circumstances.
The 40-year-old said parents who have shown interest range from people struggling because of Universal Credit, to thrifty parents who are just trying to cut back on the booming back to school costs.
She said: ‘I think people have moved on from the stigma of second hand clothes. We’re in a time when money is tight. People are having to look at alternative ways of getting everything they need.
‘If something is in excellent or very good condition can we just accept that these items can still be used.
‘If you bought if from the shop it costs more but the quality is basically the same.’
Natalie is one of thousands of parents getting involved in School Uniform Exchanges.
A search on Facebook shows hundreds of social media groups have been set up by parents across the country to arrange online swaps for free.
Mum-of-five Crystal Cole, 39, who set up one in for parents in Bexley, south east London, said 800 people joined within 24 hours.
She said: ‘I set up the group because I noticed people posting sporadically about school uniforms in community groups. I am fortunate but I have three kids in full time education myself, that would cost about £700, it’s just ridiculous.
‘I link people up or sometimes I post their requests anonymously if they fell embarrassed. There shouldn’t be a stigma about second hand uniforms. It helps people out and it stops so much waste going to land fill.’
Laurence Guinness, CEO of the Childhood Trust, believes all schools across the UK should be called upon to hold uniform swaps.
The charity is one of many campaigning to make school uniforms more affordable as an increasing amount of parents struggle to cope with back to school costs.
Although cost-cutting solutions have become more popular over the last couple of years, the idea for uniform swaps isn’t new.
Mum-of-three Kate France set up a school uniform exchange service back in 2011 after watching BBC documentary ‘Poor Kids’.
For her, the rise in demand for recycled uniforms has been two-fold.
‘I’ve noticed a big difference this year’ She said.
‘In the past the requests for help have come mostly through charities and support groups. This year we’ve had so many more parents getting involved.
‘It’s no longer about being poor, it’s about recycling and stopping uniforms going to landfill.
‘That’s the message we’ve been trying to get across the last few years because a lot of people don’t like asking for help.
‘At first it wasn’t very successful but the change in the national landscape about recycling has really helped.
‘About 60% of what we get we can re-use. Last year we stopped about 8 tonnes of clothes going to landfill.’
[ad_2]
READ SOURCE
