The Nest Collective Dunedin co-managers Chelsea Hamilton and Laura Ramsay are excited to have moved into a large, sunny space in the Allied Press building, allowing easier storage and management of the thousands of donated items they have gathered for families.
"We are growing like a mushroom and definitely needed more space, so this has been a very helpful move for us," Mrs Hamilton said.
The Nest Collective takes good quality donated clothing and day-to-day supplies for mostly newborn babies, and buys some items that are best new, then puts them together into comprehensive packs for families.
Each pack contains about 150 items, from clothing and cot blankets to nappies, sipper cups, toys and baby baths, and would have a retail value of about $1500.
"Our aim is to hopefully provide everything that is needed to care for that baby for those vital first months," Mrs Hamilton said.
More recently, the age range of babies catered to had expanded from newborns to 1-year-olds, on a case-by-case basis, she said.
"It is a helping hand to parents who may be struggling for a whole variety of reasons — finances could be an issue, family dynamics may have changed, they may be former refugees, or be teen mums.
"Nobody chooses the circumstances they are born into, but if we can give babies an easier start to life and a warm place to sleep, then that is a good thing.
"They say it takes a village to raise a child and we are trying to be part of that village — something we need more of in our society."
Ms Ramsay said the Nest Collective received a lot of feedback that mums often did not get a lot of support, so it was important to help.
"We want to wrap them up and let them know they have support," she said.
"We also like to put some special items in the packs for the mums or caregivers as well, something new."
In the past 18 months, the Nest Collective Dunedin has provided 43 packs to families in the Dunedin, Oamaru and Southland, which added up to 6450 items valued at more than $64,000.
The collective received referrals from a range of social agencies and demand was growing — in a recent two-week period it had received requests for 10 packs.
"That is a lot of items to gather and pack — it keeps us very busy," Mrs Hamilton said.
The Nest Collective Dunedin is one of six branches of The Nest Collective across New Zealand, all doing their best to help as many families as possible.
Mrs Hamilton and Ms Ramsay put a lot of volunteer hours into running the organisation, and are battling to keep up with demand.
"The recent high demand is showing that we really need more hands to help, so we are definitely looking for volunteers to work with us.
"We do have wonderful support from our knitters and the people — mostly mums — who donate beautiful clothing and toys for us.
"We are grateful for all the support and help we can get, so we can help more families."
• At present, the Nest Collective Dunedin is in need of play mats, cotton quilts, clothes for baby boys, bowls, cups and feeding items, hard toys (not soft), rattles, puzzles and balls.
For more information, email dunedin@thenestcollective.org.nz, or search The Nest Collective Dunedin on Facebook or Instagram.
