With the cost-of-living crisis making everything especially tough the campaign was driven and organised by the council’s Social Work staff to allow warm-hearted residents to donate some much-needed items to help others through the coming winter months.

With that in mind everyone who had some items they could spare were asked to hand them in to council office collection points across South Lanarkshire from Monday 21 November until Monday 19 December 2022.

This year the variety of items was expanded to assist with a variety of projects including:

• As last year, preloved winter jackets for our annual winter clothing campaign
• Preloved bedding for our Rag Rug project (only duvet covers and sheets that can be cut up into rags) - finished products donated to SSPCA and Pathfinder Dogs charity
• Odds and ends of wool for our knitting group - with seasonal products donated to various charities

Councillor Margaret Walker, the chair of the council’s Social Work Resources, said: “This time of the year is always difficult for many people. But given the cost-of-living crisis and so many people struggling to cope with the cold weather, this campaign set out to help those in need as much as possible.

“I was delighted to see the huge response from local residents who always step up when it comes to helping those less fortunate than themselves. There generosity will go some way to making this winter more bearable for so many families and individuals.”  

And residents have indeed come up trumps with a staggering 550 items having now been handed in which will now be sorted, cleaned and made ready for distribution to those most in need.

Soumen Sengupta, Director of Health and Social Care for South Lanarkshire, said: “With this winter being a particularly challenging winter for many people and families across our communities we hoped the campaign would go some way to helping those most in need.

“I was inspired by the commitment of staff across our services, including our Unpaid Work Service, who worked very hard to respond to the overwhelming generosity from the people of South Lanarkshire.

“And now that the donations are all in our Unpaid Work Team will make sure the clothing donated will be laundered, sorted and redistributed across South Lanarkshire to the people who need them the most.

“A big thank you goes out to all our teams but especially to you, the members of the public, who have shown once again that the people of South Lanarkshire always step up when it comes to helping other people when they need it the most.”