Foodbank in prom fashion gear move

Event aimed to help hard-pressed Fife parents kit out children

A Fife foodbank has branched into fashion to help hard-pressed parents and carers.

The Glenrothes charity has appealed for donations of dresses, suits and other formal wear which can be used by children attending end-ofschool dances. It comes days after The Courier revealed the foodbank’s user numbers have rocketed in recent months.

Project manager Jilly Guild, said: “It is coming up to the prom time of year...There’ll be mums and dads that decide not to eat themselves for a few days to be able to afford the outfits.

The charity is hosting an event at which anyone can snap up the outfits, with foodbank clients given a voucher to discreetly get theirs for free.

A Fife foodbank has launched an appeal to help find prom outfits for struggling service users.

Staff at the Glenrothes charity are asking for people to donate dresses, suits and other dressy attire as the formal dance season approaches.

Project manager Jilly Guild said they have been amazed by the quality of donations they have already received.

But she added they were still on the hunt for more items of clothing to suit all ages in a bid to relieve the additional financial pressure on parents.

A fashion event will be held on May 26 where members of the public will be given the opportunity to bag a bargain while service users are given discreet vouchers.

Money raised from the event will also be used to benefit the service by buying more food to go in the charity’s relief hampers.

Ms Guild said: “It is coming up to the prom time of year and there are a lot of people who are obviously struggling financially and having to come along here.

“And at the back of their minds, how many of them are actually worrying about the fact that they could have an expensive prom dress or outfit to fork out for?

“There will be some people who will go without. There’ll be mums and dads who decide not to eat themselves for a few days to be able to afford the outfits.

“How many young people don’t actually get to go because they don’t have the money?

“So what we thought we’d do was take the pressure off our customers and actually everyone in the community, by saying come along to our fashion event where we’ll have a big section of prom dresses and outfits.

“None of them will be over £5 and our clients will have discreet vouchers so they will get theirs for free.

“It’s just a really nice way of making sure that everybody can afford to get something for their children at such an important time for them.

“We will have clothes for any age as well because even kids going from primary school to high school have these proms now.

“A lot of the dresses that have been donated so far are brand new with labels on them. It’s just amazing but we do still need more.

“After we’ve made money from these events, we use it to buy food to restock the foodbank as and when we need to,” she said.

The next fashion event will be held on Saturday May 26 between 10am and 2pm.

Anyone who wants to donate outfits to the foodbank can drop off their items at Caledonia House at the Saltire Centre in Glenrothes.

Picture: Steven Brown. Charity volunteer Margaret Whittaker surrounded by dresses which have been donated to the Glenrothes foodbank for sale at a fashion event.