Amazon team in Swansea packs and donates thousands of back-to-school kits to local children
The kits of essentials are being distributed by Cwtch Mawr Multibank, led by Swansea charity Faith in Families, at a series of community events across the city
Employees from Amazon in Swansea have come together to pack and donate 2,500 backpacks filled with essential back-to-school items worth more than £30,000 to help ensure local children are equipped for the new school year.
The backpacks which contain essential items for pupils returning to school next month, including stationary suppliers, water bottles, and scientific calculators for secondary pupils, were donated to Cwtch Mawr, Wales’s first Multibank, which is run by Swansea charity Faith in Families, with support from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and Amazon. They were distributed to children across the city at a series of community events hosted by Faith in Families last week.
The Cwtch Mawr Multibank is a community donations hub, offering support to families experiencing poverty across Swansea. It provides surplus essentials, such as hygiene products, household essentials, school uniforms, and bedding donated by businesses, like Amazon, directly to those in need. The products are redistributed via the lead charity partner, Faith in Families, to schools, charity groups, and care professionals who give them directly to people in need.
According to a recent study from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, teachers are ‘staggering’ under the extra demands caused by poverty in Great Britain, diverting them away from their core teaching role. The report found that 7 in 10 (73%) staff in primary schools across Britain say supporting pupils who cannot afford the essentials is a challenge in their school. It results in teachers and GPs informally acting as emergency providers and social workers alongside their day jobs, as they devote time and resources to support struggling parents and children.
Cherrie Bija, Chief Executive of Faith in Families, said: “The start of a new school year should be an exciting time for families but with the cost of living crippling so many in our communities, it’s become yet another financial worry for them. Through the donation of these back-to-school essentials from Amazon, Cwtch Mawr hopes to provide children with the quality items they need to start the new school year ready to learn and with a smile on their faces.”
Cwtch Mawr is Wales’s first Multibank, an initiative co-founded by Gordon Brown and Amazon, which connects surplus goods from businesses with communities in need. The Welsh Government provided £125,000 for the start-up of the project, with other support coming from the local partners including Swansea County Council, Pobl Housing Association, Moondance Foundation and Swansea Bay University Health Board.
Cwtch Mawr has already supported more than 20,000 families in Swansea with the donation of hundreds of thousands of 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.
The Multibank initiative is part of the Amazon’s broader commitment to support the communities in which it operates. Since 2010, Amazon has invested £1.8 billion in Wales and created more than 2,000 jobs across the country. Amazon’s Swansea fulfilment centre recently celebrated its 16-year anniversary and in 2022, Amazon opened a global development centre in Swansea, following its acquisition of Veeqo, a Swansea-founded technology company. Amazon granted more £25,000 to charities and schools across Wales last year, including Feed the Hungry Neath, Matthew’s House, and FareShare Cymru.