Amazon and Gordon Brown-backed charity donates over two million products to families in need across Scotland – Scottish Business News

Over two million essential products have been donated to families in need across Scotland by a charity initiative called The Big House Multibank in Kirkcaldy, Fife, founded in 2022 by Amazon, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, together with local businesses and suppliers.

In Scotland, The Big House Multibank in Kirkcaldy was set up by The Cottage Family Centre which provides support to families and individuals who are vulnerable to social exclusion as a result of poverty, poor housing, unemployment, relationship breakdown, drug and alcohol problems, or other health-related issues.

The Big House Multibank has now helped to distribute 2.2 million donated products to households in Fife, Edinburgh, Dundee and Perth. Other Multibanks across the UK have also distributed another 800,000 from sites in Wigan and Swansea.

The latest milestone coincides with the opening of a new Multibank in London, which will donate more than 400,000 surplus essential goods to 40,000 families in need across London over the next 12 months.

London’s first Multibank, ‘Felix’s Multibank’, is led by The Felix Project, with support from Amazon, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the Mayor of London.

Building on the work of the first Multibank in Fife, the service will help families experiencing poverty by providing essentials like toiletries, baby products, cleaning goods and bedding donated by Amazon, and other national and local businesses.

It is the next step in an expansion of the Multibank network, co-founded by Gordon Brown and Amazon, which has now donated more than 3 million essential goods to help over 400,000 families in Scotland, Greater Manchester, and Wales.

Felix’s Multibank builds on The Felix Project’s established work rescuing high quality surplus food that would otherwise have gone to waste and redistributing it to vulnerable Londoners through a network of charities, schools and community groups. Distribution partners for Felix’s Multibank include Little Village, Trussell Trust, Lambeth Healthy Living Platform, Surplus to Supper, and St Raphael’s Family Wellbeing Centre.

The project has drawn support from the Major of London who has committed £250,000 to help with running costs for the London site. Additional funding has been provided through the Multibank Fund, established with £1 million of seed funding from Amazon and Comic Relief, to help finance the expansion of Multibanks in areas of need across the UK.

Amazon helped to establish the warehouse operations; five Amazon employees will work on-site for the first full year of operation, and the company will provide logistics support to transport the donations to community organisations across London.

Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister, said: “This milestone highlights the enormously important and pioneering work of the UK’s first Multibank in Fife, set up in 2022, which has been helping families most in need cope with the cost-of-living crisis initially in Kirkcaldy but now across the East of Scotland.

“Our new coalition with The Felix Project, who have such a strong reputation for doing good in London, will bring relief now to families in London while the new government prepares its anti-poverty strategy.”

“Felix’s Multibank will be able to add extra support to the families they serve and provide some of the non-food basics for those in greatest need across the capital.

“We are grateful to the companies from Amazon, the largest to the smallest one-person businesses and to foundations who are supporting the Multibanks and to The Felix Project for joining with us to make the roll out in London possible. And to those interested in joining or supporting our new family-centred business and charity coalition, we invite you to get in touch.”

Charlotte Hill OBE, CEO, The Felix Project, said: “Every day The Felix Project is helping to provide healthy and nutritious meals to people in need across London, but we know it is not just food they want.

“For those on low incomes all items are a struggle to afford, from toiletries and cleaning products to bedding and other household goods.

“Thanks to this incredible partnership, Felix’s Multibank will be able to ensure our network of community organisations can provide more of the things people need and just as importantly prevent perfectly usable items from going to waste.”

John Boumphrey, UK Country Manager, Amazon, said: “Since 2022, the Multibank has grown rapidly, donating millions of essential items to households across the UK.

“The addition of The Felix Project to the network is a natural next step.

“Through Felix’s Multibank, we will help many more vulnerable families across London by providing surplus essentials from Amazon and other businesses to those who need them most.

“We’ve already supported more than 400,000 families from our existing Multibanks, giving those experiencing poverty access to the essentials they need while contributing to a more circular economy.”

Felix’s Multibank is the fourth Multibank established in the UK by Gordon Brown and Amazon. The first Multibank launched in Fife, Scotland in 2022, followed by a second site in Wigan, Greater Manchester in 2023, and a third in Swansea in March, 2024.

The launch of Felix’s Multibank follows a four-year partnership between Amazon and The Felix Project.

Since 2020, Amazon has donated over 10 million meals to help the charity fight hunger in London, and provides drivers and vans to transport food donations across London every week.

Earlier this year, Amazon donated £500,000 to fund a new South London depot to help The Felix Project meet increasing levels of food insecurity across London, with the charity expecting to deliver more than 35 million meals in 2024.

Employees across Amazon also regularly volunteer in Felix’s depots and kitchens.