MUCH-LOVED regional retailer, For The Love of the North has announced that it is partnering with The Bay Food Bank to donate a full day of meals to someone in financial crisis, for every adult garment sold through 2023.
A day’s worth of food for a person in financial crisis costs the food bank approximately £4.50 and Lucy and Paul have pledged to contribute the same amount from the sale of every adult garment, either online or in-store, for the entire year. The pair have worked with local artists to create designs for sweatshirts and t-shirts, which have been already been sported by the likes of local lass and presenter of Steph’s Packed Lunch, Steph McGovern.
For the Love of the North, owned by Lucy and Paul Hull, started working with the Bay Food Bank in 2021 on a series of smaller projects, before deciding to create a longer term initiative that would directly benefit families in their local community. Last year profits from a For the Love of the North exhibition were donated to the food bank, as well as a donation of Christmas gifts for the charity’s dedicated volunteers.
The Bay Foodbank serves the whole of North Tyneside and is one of the North East’s busiest foodbanks, where a typical day can see anywhere from 30-50 emergency food parcels delivered to people who need them. Around 30% percent of clients who use the service are working and a lot people are now being forced to use the service after working their whole lives and now falling on hard times. Food parcels are delivered to families in need using unmarked vans, using supermarket carrier bags, so they look just like a regular supermarket delivery.
Speaking about the partnership with The Bay Foodbank, Lucy Hull, co-owner of For the Love of the North said, “We have a longstanding relationship with the charity, we have seen the increased need in North Tyneside and knew that we wanted to do something really meaningful to support the incredible work that they do. We spoke to Jackie and the team about what would add the most value, and with the dramatic increase in people accessing their services and food donations decreasing in the recent months, this commitment seemed like the best way to make lasting impact, rather than a one-off donation.
“From the very beginning we wanted to be a business for good, that means being fair to our artists, being a real living employer, using sustainable and ethical products and being an active part of our community. As a business we are committed to supporting our local community. The people of the North East have given us such fantastic support, they want us to do well and this is our way of giving back to our neighbours when they need us. We don’t want to just be a store or a website, we want to make a difference and keep our community at the heart of everything that we do.
“All of the products in the range are made using organic cotton and printed using environmentally friendly inks. Everything is printed to order so we are not sitting on stock that is going to be wasted, this isn’t fast fashion and we are very much encouraging people to think of this as a thoughtful purchase.
“We’re working with our artists to keep adding to the range of designs and as the year goes on we will have built up more and more for our customers to choose from and continue to support the campaign. While this is initially a 12-month commitment to support the foodbank, we see this relationship continuing long past that, as sadly there is a real need in our community for the work they do. The money will be donated quarterly to the charity with the first donation being made at the end of March 2023.”
Maggie Walker, trustee at The Bay Foodbank said, “We have seen a huge increase in the amount of families that we are serving, the cost of living crisis has had a huge impact on our region in particular. We dealing with a 45% year-on-year reduction in the amount of physical food donations compared with a consistent rise in demand for our services. We are projected to spend over £100,000 on food alone in 2023.
“We have delivered over 47,000 emergency parcels to families since 2021 and our 50,000 food parcel will be delivered in May this year. Support like this from For the Love of the North is incredible and allows us to continue to deliver services across North Tyneside, including breakfast clubs for local schools.
For the Love of the North is no stranger to charitable giving. During the Covid-19 pandemic the company donated £10,000 to the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust through the sale of their ‘Love Will Get Us Through’ rainbow print series, designed by a team of talented regional artists.
Find out more about For the Love of the North and view the selection of adult garments available as part of the campaign at https://www.fortheloveofthenorth.co.uk/