Cost of living: 'A lot of people are suffering in silence' - here's how you can help struggling families

Currently, nearly 25 per cent of our city’s children are living below the breadline, with many families forced to cut back on basic energy use. Some rely solely on charitable donations to survive.

As the default energy price cap is set to rise again by 52 per cent in October, families face further escalating costs.

This is why the Our Kids Count campaign has been launched by a group of MA Journalism students at The University of Sheffield. Partnering with local charity Baby Basics, the campaign aims to help tackle Sheffield’s child poverty emergency with an appeal for donations to families in need with young children.

From sorting through donations, to packaging Moses baskets with carefully selected donations of the best quality for Sheffield’s babies, Baby Basics is determined to continually provide the utmost level of care.

In 2021 alone, Baby Basics supported 10,220 Sheffield families to ensure that babies had a safe place to sleep and that parents had all the essentials they needed.

However, the number of families in crisis is set to drastically increase, with Baby Basics anticipating it will need to support over 15,000 children in the city this year.

While the charity has seen a spike in families referred to their services, donations are at an all-time low as a result of the cost of living crisis.

Charities Aid Foundation found a four per cent drop in UK-wide charity donations in February this year and Baby Basics has seen a rapid decline in already hard-to-get items like double buggies.

Unfortunately, BAME families and those struggling with disabilities are “suffering in silence”, as organisations with a focus on white families are likely to get more donations than those who focus on the black community.

We heard from ADIRA, a mental health charity supporting Sheffield’s black community through the cost of living crisis, to provide ethnically inclusive care packages for Sheffield’s BAME families in need.

We also spoke to a mum who is struggling to make ends meet as her autistic son requires extra support and she does not qualify for the extra allowance she needs. Her hair is falling out as a result of malnourishment and stress caused by the economic crisis.

Supplies deemed essential are few and far between for all of Sheffield’s families, as a result of the economic crisis, but especially for those who can barely afford to eat a hot meal each day.

To help make the cost of living crisis more bearable for those struggling to provide for their young children, you can support our campaign by:

Donating baby essentials on Saturday May 21 (10am-2pm) to the Baby Basics Sheffield centre, Wilkinson Lane. We are asking for children’s clothing, prams, pushchairs, slings, Moses baskets, bouncy chairs, cots, cot beds, play gyms and highchairs.Donating via an Amazon wishlist for the most in-demand essentials that Baby Basics needs to support Sheffield’s families, such as nappies, shampoo and toys. Vist amzn.to/3MZE3wN.