NEW RULES LEAD TO CHARITY ‘ PAUSING’ SERVICES
THE founder of a Glasgowbased family charity has spoken of its painful decision to temporarily pause the service due to current restrictions.
Natasha Earle, founder of Birth, Baby and Beyond, said the team would no longer be able to supply starter packs and food packs to families throughout the city and further afield, after coronavirus shielding rules were reinstated on Monday.
She said: “We took a look at the rules that came back in and in a collective decision by the board, we decided to close up for the next month.
“While we support the restrictions that have come in and know how important they are, we won’t be able to continue our service in January.
“The remaining members of our team that were left after furlough were all shielding.
“With the lockdown and shielding advice that has been issued again, it means that we cannot offer the services that we have been.
“This is not a decision that we wanted to take but we were left with no other option other than to temporarily shut down for the first ever time.”
Birth, Baby and Beyond has been helping families with newborns since 2012, with services such as starter packs – which includes a pram, a cot, feeding equipment and other essentials – as well as general food packs.
The charity introduced an online form to apply for a starter pack during the first lockdown last year to allow the service to continue.
Natasha said: “Delivery was a main part of our operation during lockdown.
“We made sure that it was a safe and contact- free delivery during lockdown so that we could safely support families.
“Now with that out of the question and with the staff not there to facilitate deliveries, it means that we can’t offer the same services.
“We were supporting around 4000 families and it wouldn’t surprise me if that number probably doubled during the past year.”
However, the charity is planning to have the pack up and running again in around one month.
Natasha said: “We are working hard behind the scenes and we have a plan to re- start the packs in February, we are now just working out the logistics of this to make sure that we can do this. We wanted to make sure that we weren’t on pause for too long because so many families rely on us, especially during this time.
“Not only is it the fact that a lot of people who maybe lost their job through the pandemic are now using our service, but there were also babies born in lockdown that now need our support.”
Birth, Baby and Beyond recently closed its Partick shop in December after funding was rejected by Glasgow City Council, but has continued to offer help to those in needs.
The charity will be opening a ‘ hub’ in spring to help extend its support.
Natasha said: “It was a blow to close the shop but it’s not all doom and gloom.
“We recently had funding which will allow us to open our central hub in March, a month later than we were originally planning.
“This will become a hub for families to come to to get support, pick up packs and anything else that they need.”
We were left with no other option other than to shut down