Little Village Cost of Living Statement

At Little Village, demand for our support hasn’t stopped increasing since the pandemic.  It’s why we’ve grown our operations across London, and hope to support over 7,000 babies and children under five in 2022 with pre loved clothes, toys, buggies and beds as well as nappies and toiletries.   Next year we’re hoping to grow that to over 9,000 children.

But we now face a double whammy of even more demand from families at the same time as our own costs are increasing.  We’ll keep working hard to raise the funds we need to support as many children as possible, but the heartbreaking circumstances we’re seeing families in are just going to get worse.

The scale and depth of child poverty in London is shocking; 37% of children in London live below the poverty line, that’s 700,000 children. We’ve supported families this summer who are rationing nappies to one a day, unable to afford the bus fare to access a local foodbank we’ve referred them to and who can’t afford energy costs before the price increases hit them.

There’s really clear evidence of the long term impact of poverty on children’s life chances. Unless urgent action is taken NOW to tackle what has become a national crisis, we’ll be reaping the impact of this winter and beyond for years to come.

In the meantime, we need volunteers and donors to stand in solidarity with young families across London who are struggling this winter.  You can find out how to get involved here.