Boots UK has partnered with The Hygiene Bank to help end hygiene poverty in the UK.
The Hygiene Bank collection bins will initially be placed in 25 Boots stores to provide donation points for new, unused and in-date toiletries and personal care essentials. The items will then be redistributed via local charities to help thousands of people feel clean and healthy. If the trial is successful, then further banks will be set up in more stores across the U.K.
Items of any brand, bought from any retailer can be donated – as long as they are unopened and in date. In addition to the collected items, bathing brand Soap and Glory will be donating thousands of shower gels to the campaign.
Founder of The Hygiene Bank, Lizzy Hall, started the people-powered charity after watching the film ‘I Daniel Blake’ which showed hygiene and personal grooming products were not easily available through foodbanks. The Hygiene Bank believes that everyone should have a dignified life and its network of nationwide banks exist to ensure those living in poverty have access to basic hygiene products.
The items most requested by those struggling to afford hygiene products include unisex shampoo & conditioner, toothpaste & toothbrushes, body wash, deodorant, nappies, baby wipes and baby toiletries, shaving foam and razors.
Helen Normoyle, Boots Marketing Director says: “Supporting hygiene poverty in local communities has been a mission for Boots since opening its doors over 170 years ago. Soap was one of the first non-medicinal products that our founder Jesse Boot sold, because he recognised that basic hygiene is the foundation of good health. Since then, Boots has continued to provide affordable healthcare and basic hygiene products, and through our partnership with The Hygiene Bank we will continue our mission to help even more people.”
Lizzy Hall, Founder of The Hygiene Bank says:According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation one in five people in the UK are living in poverty, two thirds are working families who just can’t make ends meet, having to regularly choose between eating, paying rent, heating the home or buying the basics that many of us take for granted. The partnership with Boots - one of the UK's best loved and trusted retailers - will not only give us a platform to raise awareness about the hidden issue of hygiene poverty, but will allow communities across the UK to easily get involved by donating the daily essentials”
Soap & Glory is partnering with The Hygiene Bank as part of a two year collaboration. To begin the activity, the iconic bathing brand will donate to the charity with every Soap & Glory purchase in Boots stores and at boots.com*. It is expected that Soap & Glory will donate at least 15,000 full size Clean On Me™ Creamy Clarifying Shower Gels to the charity, helping customers to give the gift of clean.
The Hygiene Bank donation points will launch in selected Boots stores from the 26th February 2020.