Bigger Hoose
Rollout for charity sending unwanted Amazon stock to vulnerable Scots families
A pioneering charity drive delivering surplus stock from Amazon to struggling Scots is to be rolled out across Scotland then Britain.
The Big Hoose Project launched this year with the ambition of helping 15,000 families in Fife, where one in four children lives in poverty. However, almost 50,000 families have benefited, prompting ambitious plans to extend the scheme across the UK as companies in the US also voice interest.
Donations from Amazon and 19 other firms include items that have been returned by customers, have out-ofdate branding or because a third-party seller does not want them back.
The scheme is backed by former prime minister Gordon Brown, who believes up to £200 million worth of goods could eventually be delivered to some of the Britain’s most vulnerable families every year.
Co-ordinated by The Cottage Family Centre charity in Kirkcaldy, where Brown was MP, it collects surplus goods, ranging from microwaves and beds to toiletries and nappies, donated by Amazon and other companies before distributing them among local charities.
It was the idea of Pauline Buchan, strategic manager of the Cottage Family Centre. She said: “Most of our time was spent running around like headless chickens trying to find funding to improve the living standards of the families we support.
“I’ve been doing this job for 14 years, and people either walk away from a job because it eventually becomes too much or else you try to take it to the next level. I spoke to Gordon, who is our patron, and said that we need to up the ante because things aren’t getting any better.
“I used to write to Amazon asking for donations for our Christmas appeal. I came up with the idea of asking them to donate surplus items they had and asked Gordon if he knew anyone senior in Amazon we could speak to. He asked me to write a list of things that we needed and said that he would arrange a meeting.
“We met Amazon’s UK boss, John Boumphrey, who loved the idea. The Dunfermline depot is the biggest Amazon depot in the country, and John wanted to do more for the community than answer thousands of letter asking for a wee bit here and a wee bit there. He agreed that wasn’t the best way for the company to connect with the community.”
Amazon had been criticised previously when an ITV News investigation in 2021 revealed it was destroying unsold stock that was often new and unused. As well as Amazon, other companies have become involved, including Scotmid, Co-op and Morrisons, as well as local businesses. A 6,000 square feet Lochgelly warehouse has been provided free of charge by the Purvis Group.
Donations to the Big Hoose include microwaves, kettles, beds, duvets, towels, toiletries, baby items, sanitary products and clothing and footwear, such as children’s trainers.
Referrals for help can be made through charities, GPS, social workers, health workers and schools. Buchan said: “You get some people claiming that people are going to food banks because they’ve wasted their money. But because it’s practitioners and professionals who are applying for these goods on behalf of families, who know their circumstances and their needs, no one can come back and say these families didn’t need the support.”
The initial target of the project was to help 15,000 families this year, but it has already helped 48,000 families with more than 320,000 donated items worth over £6m.
Brown said the project aimed to deliver 500,000 items, worth an estimated £10m, in Fife by January, before being rolled out across the country. He said the project was also helping to tackle pollution.
He said: “If all these goods are just being thrown away and destroyed, it is just adding to pollution. If we can put these goods to use, we’re also tackling pollution and making for a better environment as well as a better quality of life for people.
“What Pauline, I and others are trying to do at the moment is extend this to the rest of the country. Soon we will be helping people in Edinburgh, Dundee and round central Scotland. We are also hoping to start a project in Manchester, then one in Wales, and then maybe London.
“This will not just be a £10m injection into the Fife economy. If we get this right, it could be a £200m-a-year injection into all the different parts of Britain where the need is greatest.”
He added: “We’ve got to increase resources to poor families in this country. They cannot survive on the money that is available nor can people in the lowest-paid jobs. When you are in a crisis, you have to help those in the greatest need.”
Boumphrey, Amazon UK country manager, said: “We are proud to work with the Cottage Family Centre and an everexpanding coalition of charities and other partners in collaboration with Gordon Brown to help families in need across Fife, Falkirk, Edinburgh and the Lothians.
“This is a model that works. Amazon is providing the logistics and fulfilment know-how, funding, as well as product donations from our site in Dunfermline, but, by working with the coalition, we are getting the right products to the right people quickly.”