Furniture Charity Celebrates £10,000 of National Lottery Funding

Foundations Furniture celebrates £10,615 of National Lottery Funding to help alleviate furniture poverty in Gateshead.

Funding from the National Lottery Community Fund helped the charity improve it's Vintage Vault unit where people can buy vintage and retro items than help the charity to continue to alleviate furniture poverty.

Foundations is a local community furniture charity in Gateshead. The charity has recently completed a revamp of one it's units to brighten the space for the thousands of people who visit every year looking for affordable furniture for all sorts of reasons.

Often, people visit the charity when struggling to afford essential items, but the furniture, white goods, electricals, new beds and mattresses and more recently it's vintage furniture unit, Vintage Vault, is also available for everyone to call in and browse to help the charity raise money for it's main cause of helping people in hardship in Tyne and Wear.

Funding from The National Lottery Community Fund helped Foundations to replace damaged flooring and entryways in it's Vintage Vault unit. It means the charity can open the welcoming space to it's many visitors, giving people even more items to view, and it means the charity can collect even more donated items that would otherwise be at risk of being sent to landfill uncecessarily.

Chairman, Brian Howell, and members of the local community formed the charity in 1996 and celebrates 30 years this year. What started as a small, part time service supporting households in the Teams area of Gateshead, is now operating every weekday across Tyne and Wear.

Foundations collects donated items of furniture and small and large appliances from Tyne and Wear, bringing items back to our charity warehouses on Askew Road West in Gateshead where they are cleaned and safety checked. Each item is then available at affordable prices to people living in Tyne and Wear affected by furniture poverty.

The service helps people to quickly alleviate the emotional and financial burden of struggling to afford essential household items during times of hardship.

The small charity is supported by volunteers too, who help with deliveries and collections of furniture, loading and unloading the van, minor repairs of furniture and making our furniture displays look their best.

Foundations Furniture says:

"We're delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has helped us to open up more space to the people who visit us. Thanks to National Lottery players, we can welcome more households to our charity and show them a wider range of items that make houses into homes."

About the National Lottery Community Fund

National Lottery players raise over £32 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, The National Lottery Community Fund distributes over £600 million a year through over 13,000 grants. The funder plans to invest over £4 billion of funding into communities by 2030. It supports projects across the whole of the UK to turn their truly life-changing ideas into reality.

Foundations is a registered charity (1090034) that collects unwanted, usable furniture and electrical items from across Tyne and Wear to help Gateshead residents in hardship who struggle to afford to furnish their homes. To find out more, visit our website www.foundationsfurniture.co.uk, or call 0191 4778337.

VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES

We also provide opportunities for local people to volunteer to stay connected, gain new skills and experience, and to help support the community. Use the form below to get in touch.