Local charity, Community Food Initiatives North East (CFINE) is launching its clothing service for children – the Children’s Comfort Closet – on Thursday, February 21, 2019 at Tullos Primary School and Learning Centre. The ‘Comfort Closet’ initiative aims to improve wellbeing among insecure families and communities in Aberdeen whilst reducing the amount of textile waste going to landfill.
Social workers find that children, who do not have appropriate clothing for certain social activities - including school attendance -, tend to engage less than their peers. CFINE intends to support local children by redistributing good quality outfits and shoe wear to those who may struggle. Parents’ mental wellbeing is also expected to benefit from this service as anxiety caused by ‘not being able to provide’ for their kids will reduce.
“During my time working and interacting with families who struggling to make ends meet, I found that those children who live in vulnerable families, miss out on a lot of things, often because they don’t have the right clothes and shoes to play football or go on a school trip” said Kerry Wright, Comfort Closet project co-ordinator, CFINE. “As a mother of three, addressing and tackling this issue became my passion. I will do everything in my power to help those kids have a childhood they deserve, without having to be concerned about getting the cold or being teased by the others.”
The clothes will be made available at CFINE and through partner organisations; involving a number of schools, nurseries and community centres in the initiative.
The launch event on Thursday, February 21, will be supported by the Tuk In, CFINE’s electric tuk-tuk transformed into a mobile community café. Tuk In will expanding its services to the Torry area within Aberdeen on Thursday, February 28, serving healthy and inexpensive meals for the community.
