Helen Head and Patrick HughesSouth of England
BBCA BBC campaign aims to help charities and community groups by organising drop-off points for toiletries and hygiene items to be donated to people who need extra support.
The BBC Radio Solent Soapbox Appeal will collect donations at over 50 drop-off points in Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight across January.
They will then be sent to charities and communities groups who will help distribute them.
The manager of a food bank charity in Bournemouth, which also provides toiletry parcels, said that those suffering from food poverty can struggle to afford to buy their own hygiene essentials.
Donations can include new and unopened toiletries like shampoo and toothpaste, and other cleaning products including washing up liquid, sponges, cloths and tissues.
Last year’s campaign saw thousands of the items donated and distributed.
Ahead of this campaign’s launch, BBC Radio Solent visited Hope for Food, a food bank charity in Bournemouth, which distributes around 150 family food parcels every week, as well as bags of toiletries.
Mary Duncan, the operations manager at the charity, said that since she began volunteering there in 2016, the need from families has “increased hugely”.
“We are getting a huge number of referrals coming in,” said Ms. Duncan.
“Things that most of us take for granted – people who are really struggling will have to find extra money to pay for those things.”
The national charity the Hygiene Bank estimates there are 4.2 million adults in the UK in hygiene poverty.
One survey carried out last year by that charity, along with product distribution charity In Kind Direct, found that 13% of children aged six to 15 in the south of England were living in food poverty.
“The impact on children going to school when they don’t have clean clothes or clean hair…other children might ostracise them,” said Ms. Duncan
“It is very important for your own self-worth that you can keep yourself clean and you can keep your home clean.”
For a list of the drop-off points across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Dorset, visit the BBC Radio Solent Make a Difference page here.