Right, so I just wanted to address, to remind - 21 Nov 2025 - (1,233 words) - Jaynes Baby Bank
Right, so I just wanted to address, to remind people, why we say you have to be a customer or a donator to access our services.
Lots of people, right?
HCT for one, only do 15 food banks a week or whatever, a month, whatever they're doing.
The pantry, you've got to join up and pay £7 and then you've got to pay £2 for a card and then you've got to pay £7 every six months and then you've got, you know, whatever they're doing.
You know, a lot of these places you have to sign up.
You know, we are not a public entity, right?
We are private.
So if I wanted to put £10 subscription a year on it, I could, right?
Oh, I'm thinking of doing as well, guys, because we get a lot of stuff.
We know the £3.50.
But what I'm thinking of doing is, you know the £3.50 subscription to our page, because at some stage we're going to knock off the public fee to the page.
So you have to subscribe to see our videos and things, OK?
So it's £3.50 to subscribe to our page, to support our page.
That's the price of a pack of nappies, roughly.
OK?
That I know I can get for £3.50.
So what I'm thinking of doing is, if you subscribe, come into the shop and you can redeem that for an item worth £3.50 every month as well.
OK?
So you never really lose out on a deal.
It's just moving the figures about.
That's all there is to it.
Yeah, so why do we say you can only access our services if you're a customer or donator?
Because when we first got started, we got fleeced.
And people were picking up stuff left, right and centre and putting it online.
And then we didn't have stuff for mothers who really needed it.
So we said, no, no, no, no, we're not doing this no more.
Right?
If I said our food bank was free to everybody today, I'd be wiped out today because I'd get a load of free orders in, right?
If you are a customer or a donator of stock or a supporter, OK?
Because word of mouth is very important to us.
And advertising our posts and sharing our posts is also very important to us, OK?
And advocating for us, whether you live, you know, on Caerphilly doorstep or whether you live in Carmarthen and you're advocating for us, it doesn't matter, OK?
Because people will always believe word of mouth rather than the stuff that they read online, OK?
We proved that because we wouldn't still be going five years down the line with all this abuse they keep throwing at us.
And they look like fools now, don't they?
They look like fools.
So, by being a customer or a donator, what does that mean?
That means that somewhere down the line you've donated products that might be of use to a mother that we give back out for free.
Or you've come in and you've been buying stuff, which means we can pay the rent, we can pay the electric.
Which means we've got a roof over our head to store the stocks.
We've got mothers that can afford to come in and help, can come in and browse and shop.
Mothers that have donations can leave them with us.
Mothers that need to charge their phone can.
Mothers that need to use the toilets can.
Or the sanitary way, if they need sanitary way, or they're out and about, we had a lady the other day needing a nappy, so we were like, hang on, we've got a couple but you have this half a pack.
You know, just forgot the nappy bag.
If they want to come in and feed the babies, they can.
If they want to breastfeed, they can.
If they just want to come in and have five minutes and offer all to us, they can.
But what we found was, in the beginning we were getting a lot of free loaders.
You know, it's like the nappies.
We put the nappies up and we said, can you make a pound donation towards them?
And we don't need to do that now.
We did it for like the first year, you know, we did it.
And people were coming in and wanting to buy 20 packs and we were like, no, it's one a week maximum.
And then after about a year, we, I think it was when we got Pontypoole Shop, I think we sort of evened off our uneven keel fundraising-wise and we took the pound charge off.
Let me speak into a member of staff once.
And she came in and she said, oh, I had a woman in and she wanted formula and I charged her 250 for it.
I said, I hope you didn't.
I said, because the food bank is free.
I said, can you describe this moment to me?
In fact, you get over it and tell them we're going to be in burst for the £2.50.
Okay?
So our products are free.
If you want to put something in the donation box, you're more than welcome.
Right?
In London, you go back into the food bank because anything that's in the donation bank goes back into the food bank.
Buy your nappies, buy your formula if somebody needs it and we haven't got it.
Or a size of nappies or, you know, they might be out on the front and we don't tend to buy the food if we can't tend to get a lot of it donated in the tins.
But we have done in the past.
We have done shops and sales in the past.
We've been a bit busy lately and we've got enough data to cover what we're doing.
And obviously if somebody needs a full food bank or specific items, because sometimes...
and I'll give you an example of this.
One of our good mums has been with us since the beginning.
Jess, Jessica.
Her son can't eat school dinners.
Remember when they delivered her to school dinners?
Because he has special requirements for eating.
And I know that because I work in special needs for years.
I can say it.
I like crunchy food.
I'm a crunchy mumma and I've got to crunch something.
And everything I eat got to be covered in tomato sauce.
Even my Christmas dinner.
It's covered in tomato sauce.
It's really quite nice to try it.
Oh, there's a market up there today.
Oh, in the car park.
That's a stupid place to put it.
Where's everybody going to park?
Stupid place.
What comes up with these ideas?
I've never seen it in the car park.
Where's everybody going to park?
Anyway,
so she said to us, do you want school dinners because you won't eat them?
So I said, yeah, I'll swap out and I'll go and get some kind of chicken dinners.
Because I know that child will only eat certain things.
And that's what we do.
Out of a fundraising, you know.
We do lots of stuff out of a fundraising.
We buy books for mothers who are still struggling with grief if they've lost a baby or a child.
We're only head closed.
Well hang on guys, I'm going to have to come on.
Lots of people, right?
HCT for one, only do 15 food banks a week or whatever, a month, whatever they're doing.
The pantry, you've got to join up and pay £7 and then you've got to pay £2 for a card and then you've got to pay £7 every six months and then you've got, you know, whatever they're doing.
You know, a lot of these places you have to sign up.
You know, we are not a public entity, right?
We are private.
So if I wanted to put £10 subscription a year on it, I could, right?
Oh, I'm thinking of doing as well, guys, because we get a lot of stuff.
We know the £3.50.
But what I'm thinking of doing is, you know the £3.50 subscription to our page, because at some stage we're going to knock off the public fee to the page.
So you have to subscribe to see our videos and things, OK?
So it's £3.50 to subscribe to our page, to support our page.
That's the price of a pack of nappies, roughly.
OK?
That I know I can get for £3.50.
So what I'm thinking of doing is, if you subscribe, come into the shop and you can redeem that for an item worth £3.50 every month as well.
OK?
So you never really lose out on a deal.
It's just moving the figures about.
That's all there is to it.
Yeah, so why do we say you can only access our services if you're a customer or donator?
Because when we first got started, we got fleeced.
And people were picking up stuff left, right and centre and putting it online.
And then we didn't have stuff for mothers who really needed it.
So we said, no, no, no, no, we're not doing this no more.
Right?
If I said our food bank was free to everybody today, I'd be wiped out today because I'd get a load of free orders in, right?
If you are a customer or a donator of stock or a supporter, OK?
Because word of mouth is very important to us.
And advertising our posts and sharing our posts is also very important to us, OK?
And advocating for us, whether you live, you know, on Caerphilly doorstep or whether you live in Carmarthen and you're advocating for us, it doesn't matter, OK?
Because people will always believe word of mouth rather than the stuff that they read online, OK?
We proved that because we wouldn't still be going five years down the line with all this abuse they keep throwing at us.
And they look like fools now, don't they?
They look like fools.
So, by being a customer or a donator, what does that mean?
That means that somewhere down the line you've donated products that might be of use to a mother that we give back out for free.
Or you've come in and you've been buying stuff, which means we can pay the rent, we can pay the electric.
Which means we've got a roof over our head to store the stocks.
We've got mothers that can afford to come in and help, can come in and browse and shop.
Mothers that have donations can leave them with us.
Mothers that need to charge their phone can.
Mothers that need to use the toilets can.
Or the sanitary way, if they need sanitary way, or they're out and about, we had a lady the other day needing a nappy, so we were like, hang on, we've got a couple but you have this half a pack.
You know, just forgot the nappy bag.
If they want to come in and feed the babies, they can.
If they want to breastfeed, they can.
If they just want to come in and have five minutes and offer all to us, they can.
But what we found was, in the beginning we were getting a lot of free loaders.
You know, it's like the nappies.
We put the nappies up and we said, can you make a pound donation towards them?
And we don't need to do that now.
We did it for like the first year, you know, we did it.
And people were coming in and wanting to buy 20 packs and we were like, no, it's one a week maximum.
And then after about a year, we, I think it was when we got Pontypoole Shop, I think we sort of evened off our uneven keel fundraising-wise and we took the pound charge off.
Let me speak into a member of staff once.
And she came in and she said, oh, I had a woman in and she wanted formula and I charged her 250 for it.
I said, I hope you didn't.
I said, because the food bank is free.
I said, can you describe this moment to me?
In fact, you get over it and tell them we're going to be in burst for the £2.50.
Okay?
So our products are free.
If you want to put something in the donation box, you're more than welcome.
Right?
In London, you go back into the food bank because anything that's in the donation bank goes back into the food bank.
Buy your nappies, buy your formula if somebody needs it and we haven't got it.
Or a size of nappies or, you know, they might be out on the front and we don't tend to buy the food if we can't tend to get a lot of it donated in the tins.
But we have done in the past.
We have done shops and sales in the past.
We've been a bit busy lately and we've got enough data to cover what we're doing.
And obviously if somebody needs a full food bank or specific items, because sometimes...
and I'll give you an example of this.
One of our good mums has been with us since the beginning.
Jess, Jessica.
Her son can't eat school dinners.
Remember when they delivered her to school dinners?
Because he has special requirements for eating.
And I know that because I work in special needs for years.
I can say it.
I like crunchy food.
I'm a crunchy mumma and I've got to crunch something.
And everything I eat got to be covered in tomato sauce.
Even my Christmas dinner.
It's covered in tomato sauce.
It's really quite nice to try it.
Oh, there's a market up there today.
Oh, in the car park.
That's a stupid place to put it.
Where's everybody going to park?
Stupid place.
What comes up with these ideas?
I've never seen it in the car park.
Where's everybody going to park?
Anyway,
so she said to us, do you want school dinners because you won't eat them?
So I said, yeah, I'll swap out and I'll go and get some kind of chicken dinners.
Because I know that child will only eat certain things.
And that's what we do.
Out of a fundraising, you know.
We do lots of stuff out of a fundraising.
We buy books for mothers who are still struggling with grief if they've lost a baby or a child.
We're only head closed.
Well hang on guys, I'm going to have to come on.