A grass roots charitable trust, tackling hygiene poverty in South Manchester & East Cheshire, has been awarded a grant by a local wealth management company, as part of its ongoing commitment to supporting those in its local area in need.
Bare Necessities Toiletry Bank operates like a food bank, collecting toiletries and hygiene essentials to distribute to organisations and charities whose clients live in poverty or financial hardship. The charity operates across six key areas; women, youth, street homeless, food banks, NHS Covid and mother & baby and offer regular support to 25 charities/groups.
Bare Necessities provides toiletry packs specific to each charity or group’s needs, as well as providing loose products for food banks to add to their food parcels.
The £500 grant, courtesy of the Equilibrium Foundation, will help Bare Necessities to continue with their ‘Give a Smile’ initiative, which aims to combat the lack of quality dental essentials available to local communities by providing three month’s supplies of essential dental kits to those in need.
Wendy Hobson from Bare Necessities commented “As a grassroots charity we rely on accessing donations such as this to help us continue helping local people living with hygiene poverty.”
She added, “We are told that toothpaste is the most requested toiletry item at food banks and that good oral hygiene is out of reach for people living in poverty. This has disastrous consequences for their physical and mental health. A lack of toothpaste is a key issue as is the sharing of toothbrushes in poorer households.”
“Equilibrium’s donation will allow us to provide around another 150 of our ‘Give a Smile’ dental kits, so thank you to all at Equilibrium for your support.”
Equilibrium’s community support scheme was set up in 2015 to award grants ranging from £100 to £500 to community organisations and charities in the local community.
With this latest handful of grants, the wealth management company has awarded over £30,000 in funds to community groups. The scheme forms part of the company’s wider charitable giving strategy, which is anchored by The Equilibrium Foundation and has a current donation goal of £4m.
