Project backed by Gordon Brown helping struggling Scots to roll out across UK

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Donations from Amazon and 19 other firms include items that have been returned by customers, have out-of-date branding or because a third-party seller does not want them back.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 ever-expanding 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.”

The Big Hoose Project was named by actress Arabella Weir as Pauline Buchan remembers: “She recorded a video message for the Cottage Family Centre’s Christmas appeal last year and at the time we didn’t have a name for the project. She said, ‘The name Cottage Family Centre makes you think of a wee hoose. This project could be the big hoose’. I said, ‘That’s what we’re going to call it’.

“I met people from Manchester recently who said they wouldn’t be calling it a hoose. I asked what they would be calling it and they said an ‘ouse. I’m looking forward to the project expanding across the country and hearing the different pronunciations.”

Warm Welcome turns up heat to help so many in need

© Nick Ansell/PA Wire

By Gordon Brown

The Warm Welcome campaign began this week across the UK, with 3,500 heating hubs opening around the nation. It is the latest in a line of new initiatives dreamt up by charities and voluntary organisations ahead of one of the toughest winters yet.

The campaign, which opens up church halls, mosques, synagogues, libraries and other public buildings, offering a warm space and a warm hand of friendship – joins the 3,000 food banks, the community pantries, swap shops and fuel banks springing up across the country.

My home area of Fife is leading in its own way. The Cottage Family Centre has piloted the multi-bank – a food, clothing, bedding, toiletries, furnishings, and baby bank rolled into one – and, with the support of the Robertson Trust and the Northwood Trust, it is now helping 40,000 families. Known as the Big Hoose Project, the charity is delivering goods free of charge supplied by Amazon, Scotmid, Fishers Laundry, Purvis Group and 12 other local companies.

A total of 320,000 items – including nappies, toilet rolls, tinned food, bedding, home furnishings, and clothes – have already been sent out to families in need and the project will surpass 500,000 goods valued at around £10m early in 2023.

Fife has kicked off the idea of the multibank and we want to see it expand into the rest of the country. In the next few months, we hope to move into central Scotland.

The need is great. It is heart-warming to know that people are stepping up.