Employees from Amazon’s corporate office in Swansea have come together to pack thousands of new baby kits filled with essential items worth more than £10,000 for a charity initiative supporting families in need across the city.
The ‘Welcome to the World’ kits which contain essential items for babies such as wipes, baby cream, dummies, cloths, and bibs packed in a cloth bag, were donated to Cwtch Mawr, Wales’s first Multibank, which is run by Swansea charity Faith in Families, with support from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and Amazon UK.
The Cwtch Mawr Multibank is a community donations hub, offering support for families experiencing poverty across Swansea. It provides surplus essentials, such as warm clothes, hygiene products, school uniforms, and bedding donated by businesses, like Amazon, directly to those in need. The products are redistributed via the lead charity partner, Faith in Families, to charity groups and care professionals who give them directly to people in need, when they need them.
Kitting events also took place in Amazon’s offices in London, Edinburgh, Cambridge and Manchester with the aim of packing and donating 30,000 essential kits to the Multibank network across the UK.
The events are part of Amazon’s Global Month of Volunteering, an initiative that aims to help the communities where Amazon employees live and work. During May, thousands of Amazon employees volunteered alongside their peers, adding to the company’s efforts to support its local communities throughout the year. The volunteer initiatives helped address a range of issues, including STEM education and food insecurity.
Aisling Miller is an employee at Amazon’s corporate office in Swansea and took part in the packing event. He/she said:
“I’m proud that my colleagues were able to come together to offer a helping hand to Cwtch Mawr through this volunteering. Amazon already donates thousands of products to the Multibank but it was great to play our part and support the incredible work that Faith in Families does to help those impacted by poverty in Swansea.”
Cherrie Bija, CEO of Faith in Families added:
“Too many people in our local community are experiencing poverty and unable to afford the basic essentials so many of us take for granted. These kits will make a very real difference to new parents in our community who need support during difficult times. Thank you to the Amazon team for their ongoing support in helping us ensure Cwtch Mawr is here to help those who need it most.”
Cwtch Mawr has already supported more than 20,000 families in Swansea with the donation of more than 90,000 goods since donations started to arrive in late 2023. Community support organisations, schools and colleges, homeless shelters, and elderly support services in the area have taken delivery of essential supplies from Cwtch Mawr, including Swansea Council’s social services, Llamau, Swansea Asylum Seekers Support, and Swansea Young Families.
Cwtch Mawr is the third Multibank established in the UK, an initiative co-founded by Gordon Brown and Amazon. The first Multibank launched in Fife, Scotland in 2022 and was followed by a second site in Wigan, Greater Manchester in 2023. The initiative has now donated more than 2 million surplus essential items to over 200,000 families in need.
The Multibank initiative is part of the Amazon’s broader commitment to support the communities in which it operates. Since 2010, Amazon has invested £1.8 billion in Wales and created more than 2,000 jobs across the country. Amazon’s Swansea fulfilment centre recently celebrated its 16-year anniversary and in 2022, Amazon opened a global development centre in Swansea, following its acquisition of Veeqo, a Swansea-founded technology company. Amazon granted more £25,000 to charities and schools across Wales last year, including Feed the Hungry Neath, Matthew’s House, and FareShare Cymru.
