Charity The Children's Lighthouse opens new city-centre shop to keep children fed

AS the cost of living crisis continues to bite, a charity has opened a store in the city to try and ensure no children will go hungry over the school holidays.

The Children’s Lighthouse (TLC) will sell used goods to fund their food operation from premises at 33 Harbour Road, beside Pepe’s Chicken and Sharon Leon.

The community interest company is also on a mission to help parents and carers afford school uniforms for their youngsters and has appealed for any second hand uniforms to be brought to them for re-use for as little as 50p.

Retail managing director Jaye Fraser, who has a team of six volunteers, said: “The purpose of the community store is to raise vital funds to help ease holiday hunger right here on our very own doorsteps.

“Our main objective is feeding all local children regardless of background during school holidays.”

She added: “The support has been unreal, and it was hectic on our opening day on Monday past, and busy since.

“They idea is that we accept unwanted stuff just like your usual charity shop, but we use the money to buy food which we hope to distribute to people through community centres. We are are trying to arrange this through Highland Council and High Life Highland.”

Ms Fraser (29) added: “The other issue is the cost of school uniforms. A recent study by Sainsburys revealed it could cost £6000 to buy school uniforms for one child’s entire school years.

“Many people cannot afford that kind of money on top of buying food, and heating etc.

“It costs £40 to £50 for a brand new uniform.”

At the moment the shop has uniform items representing 11 schools in the area.

Ms Fraser said that currently they are in talks with Cfine, an Aberdeen-based group that runs community food outlets in the north-east, which will hopefully be able to supply them with pallets of food.

She said: “We are a local community interest charity, run by local Inverness people.

“We are charitable in nature, but our actions are from a standpoint of respect and solidarity, not pity. We will never ask any child to prove their need and we will feed as many children as we can, where and when we can during the school holidays.”

Ms Fraser said one in five Highland children are living in food poverty with numbers set to rise to as much as one in three as a result of the coronavirus crisis according to a recent report.

The TLC store accepts drop-off donations of furniture, bric-a-brac, clothing and electrical.

Parents and carers can apply to Highland Council for a School Clothing Grant.

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