Hey guys, we've had a busy little Monday, I've got to be honest.
It's been slow and steady.
Yeah, I've had more customers than I usually have on a Monday, definitely into Philly.
A lot of people still don't realise we're there.
It was nice to have a break in the weather, that helps, don't it?
But stuff is starting to go now, especially toys.
Christmas stuff, flying out.
It'll be gone by December, I reckon, all our Christmas stuff.
And the toys and the nice gift sets and stuff are flying out, right?
So, you know, if you've seen something or you need to do your shopping, you know we're on offer, guys.
We've got massive offers at the moment.
Get in there and get it.
Because if we sell out, we'll just open it back up to get more donations.
You know, we'll never sell out, ever.
Yeah, so we need your help now, guys, with the food bank.
We've got our number, yeah.
We've got our traceable payments in place.
We're getting more and more people asking for help now because now they realise that we do actually help people and all of these other ones are just helping their friends or on the make for money.
Our next job now is to approach all the supermarkets and explain to them, which some of them already know, that these individuals are absolutely dominating the scene, picking up, you know, and how much is actually going to people that's not just their mates.
You know, it's supposed to be done fairly, isn't it?
It's called fair share because it's supposed to be shared fairly.
And right now it isn't.
You know, you've got a staff eating the Greggs.
We've had pictures of it.
We've had pictures.
We've seen pictures, right?
We've seen pictures that they put on the internet and we've seen pictures that other people have taken while they've been in the establishment and people are helping themselves with Greggs out of the fridge and things like that.
So they're not going to the people who need them.
Not always.
Not 100%.
And, you know, there are systems out there to do things like gift out to staff, but it all needs to be recorded, doesn't it?
So is it being recorded?
I don't think so.
It's funny how everything we receive is on show.
Yeah, everything that we have given to us is put straight online.
Put on show, you know, recorded in books.
You can see us writing down the sales.
As soon as you come in, we write down the sales.
If you bring stuff in, we weigh in it.
You know, there's so much transparency with us that it's just, you know, how people can say we're scamming anybody.
I don't know because, you know, there's so much recordedness and scamming and recording of documentation going on via photographs and everything else.
Even the staff take photographs of what they take home.
When they have their £20 allowance, they're told to take a photograph of it and keep it for their own reference and write it in the book.
You know, are other places doing it?
Nope.
Does it all get written down?
Nope.
Does it all get weighed?
Nope.
We're one of the very few people who actually weigh it.
To prove what's come in, you know.
So if an auditor was to come in and wanted to weigh everything in the shop, they'd know exactly what's come in and what's gone, wouldn't they?
So yeah, we need your help now, guys, with the food.
We need more food.
We need you talking to the supermarkets and the food outlets and restaurants and pubs and anywhere that you think that can help us, help other people, I need you talking to them.
I need you going out and saying you know what's happened with this baby bank.
You know they've tried to sabotage her.
And you know she's absolutely kept her head up high and all the volunteers have.
While she's pushed through this, now she needs you.
Now she needs you to think about who you're giving the donations to and are they going to the right people?
Because we're giving them to people who are too afraid to put their heating on.
It's cold.
It is cold.
Today I've got a couple of layers on and I'm starting to feel the cold again.
They can't afford to put the lights on.
They can't afford to put the heating on.
And they can't afford to cook food.
And they can't afford the food.
So these are the people that need your help.
It's not my help.
I'm just the facilitator.
I'm just the facilitator.
Oh what's happened to you?
Somebody's broke down I think on the roundabout.
Be careful guys.
Oh it's a nasty accident.
It's like three cars I think.
Everybody looks okay.
They're swapping details.
But obviously it's going to slow down the traffic now on our roundabout.
But they're coming out of Caerphilly.
So just be careful.
These mothers need you.
They need you doing tin on the wall collections.
I can't do it all guys.
I'm useless when my knee is bad.
You know that.
I can only have so many steroid injections a year and hopefully a knee replacement will work.
I need help from you.
I need you vocalising what we're doing.
I need word of mouth because that's the best.
Word of mouth is the best.
Mother to mother.
I need you out helping.
I need people helping fund raise.
I need help with donations because we cannot do it on the staff that we've got no more.
We were struggling this time last year to process all of the donations with the staff we had last year.
I need more staff because my donations have quadrupled.
Not just triple anymore.
We're talking quadrupled.
We need more and more volunteers coming in now guys.
Like I said.
We're taking it as cheap as I can now because we've got so much.
My donation level is quadrupled.
I've had to stop donations coming in until I get two more warehouses.
Three more shops and a blooming furniture shop.
Unreal, isn't it?
I need people on eBay.
I need people on Vinted.
I had a Vinted sale.
Not very often I get one.
I don't go on Etsy.
I don't upload every day because by the time I get home now and do everything I've got to do at home I've got ten forms I've got to fill out tonight when I go home now.
Plus emails.
Plus I'll probably have letters through the door.
All to do with the baby bank.
Not my own life.
I haven't got a life.
And I don't really want one.
But we need you now guys.
We need the public to come in and help us.
We need the public to volunteer.
We need the public to work from home and do jobs.
I mean, how many of these other charities are employing people?
How many of them have gone out of their way?
We've already contacted an employment solicitor and we've already contacted Citizens Advice prior to us getting the number because we knew that was in the pipeline ready to start employing mums that need ours.