On Thursday 18 June, Reigate Grammar School became a collection point for donations of nappies and stationery in support of Surrey-based charity Stripey Stork.  Once again, the response from our Reigatian community has been incredible: 2,693 nappies and 4,902 colouring pens, pencils, notepads and more. This is part of a range of community-based initiatives that the RGS We Care team has been involved with.

As part of our ongoing commitment to community outreach, we have been working in partnership with Stripey Stork, who distributes essential items to families in need via a network of referral partners including schools, health visitors, social workers and women’s shelters.

Stripey Stork is a Surrey charity which takes in donations of good quality, essential items for babies and children up to the age of 16. At its Reigate warehouse, donations of  clothing, toys, books, cots and buggies are checked to ensure that they are in good condition and meet current UK safety standards. These are distributed to families in need via a network of referral partners including schools, health visitors, social workers and women’s shelters. Before the Covid-19 crisis, figures showed that between 10-30% children across Surrey were living in poverty.

Stripey Stork has seen an unprecedented increase in demand as a result of Covid-19. The financial impact of lockdown – parents losing their jobs or having their wages cut, combined with the cost of having children at home for extended periods of time – is having an impact on the families that it was already supporting. Many families who were previously coping have started to struggle too. And since lockdown began, Stripey Stork has helped an additional 890 families. They expect that the consequences of this pandemic will last long after lockdown has ended.

Torrential rain didn’t deter people from venturing out to drop off their donations and our Foundation team enjoyed being able to stop and chat to members of our community.  Students working from home also demonstrated their support of the annual #Stripes4Stripey day by dressing for the occasion.

As always we are truly grateful for the amazing support we’ve had from the Reigatian community.