Swap shop supporting people in need gets set to be swamped as it opens for first time since Christmas

A South Liverpool support initiative that gives clothes, food, and household items to people who’re struggling is getting ready for a rush when it opens its doors tomorrow for the first time after Christmas.

Pauline Mensah, who leads a group of volunteers at The Original Swap Shop, says:

“We’ve been busy restocking and preparing the shop so that all the rails are really full. I know that after we open again tomorrow after being closed for three weeks, there’ll be nothing left again. 

“We’re expecting more than 50 people, if not more, coming for help tomorrow; the queues even before Christmas were getting longer and longer, and people were queueing up earlier than ever.

“The demand has already doubled since Covid and as the cost of living crisis goes on it just gets worse. We have people coming in who aren’t working, and even people with jobs … everyone is finding it so tough.”

Pauline, 55, who runs the Swap Shop based at Speke Training and Education Centre with daughter Shantelle, says people now come from all over Merseyside, including Huyton, Bootle, Wirral, and Kirkby – and there are times they’ve had turn people away.

“There have been times over the last few months when the demand has been so great and we’ve haven’t had enough in stock because so many people have come to us, that we’ve had to restrict the help to people from L19 and 24, Speke and Garston, and that breaks my heart.

“It’s horrible when we have to turn people away. It makes me feel physically sick and upset when we can’t do what we want, and what we set out to do. So we do try not to do that.

“It’s outrageous that in this day and age everyone is finding it so hard.”  

The Original Swap Shop has been running for more than 10 years after a group of mums came together to share used school uniforms. They would recycle the uniforms and pass them on from one child to another when they had grown out of them.

Since then the community organisation has provided more and more people with clothing, household items and, at Christmas, food – it gave out hampers and fed more than 40 families in December – and crucially everything is given for free.

But it hopes that as many as possible of those who come to get things they need, will continue the original aim which was to swap things, so they’ll bring things that no longer fit or that they no longer want.

Pauline says:

“As much as possible it’s about recycling and stopping things ending in landfill and, like, with those original uniforms, helping each other out.”

The Original Swap Shop opens for two and half hours between 11am and 1.30pm every Friday, but Pauline revealed plans to open an extra day and, even, to try to spread the idea further afield:

“We’ve love to help set up similar shops across Merseyside because the need is there.”

There has been a big demand lately for baby equipment and items for pregnant mums: “If anyone has anything to donate we’d be really grateful.

“We have recently helped to provide three young mums with everything they need from a pram to a breast pump and that’s been really nice.

“One girl came in expecting to get maybe a steriliser and a few clothes and we were able to give her everything, a pram, a cot, a rocker, a baby bouncer, even bottles.  The look on her face was priceless.

“She was crying. I was crying. It’s horrible that people are in the situations they are, but it feels good to be able to help people who are genuinely in need.”

Pauline has appealed for any who can donate any items to them – even large furniture items that they can put online and pass on ‘as long as they’re prepared to donate them for free’ – to get in touch.

Contact The Original Swap Shop on its Facebook page here.

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