About Pelican Parcels
What We Do
We take pre-loved and new item donations for babies and children up to age 12, and redistribute them to families facing financial hardship via various existing family services in Brighton & Hove in Sussex.
End Child Poverty state that 28.4% of all those aged 16 and under in Brighton & Hove are living in poverty. The city has high rates of children in need, in care and with child protection plans and/or who have been referred to children’s social care services.
Pelican Parcels aims to provide all essentials from beds and clothes, uniform and shoes, toys and books, prams and play mats, nappies and toiletries for families from birth up to the age of 12. Full list of items you can donate.
All donations go directly to the families at no cost to them.
How We Help
We do not support individuals or families directly. If you need help, please ask your midwife, health visitor, social worker, children’s centre, school or foodbank to make a referral on your behalf.
If you are a health professional or work for a social service agency, please email info@pelicanparcels.org.uk.
Our service is provided free of charge with no assessment criteria. All items need to be collected from our warehouse by the agency making the referral.
Who We Are
Pelican Parcels is a charity designed to support disadvantaged families in Brighton & Hove.
The charity was founded by Shelley and James Bennett in 2018. The idea came about when they wanted to gift some of their cherished, but no longer used, baby items to a family in need. After realising that such a service did not exist locally they decided to start Pelican Parcels with the aim to provide and recycle children’s items to disadvantaged families.
We have six Trustees:
- Shelley has three gorgeous children and has a background in PR and comms for charity and arts and is responsible for the day to day running of Pelican Parcels.
- James is a dad to the same three children and works in financial services as a Chief Risk and Compliance Officer leading on governance, risk and compliance issues. He is Chair of Trustees.
- Carla Pannett is mum to two amazing girls and runs multi-million pound fundraising campaigns.
- Lucy Stone is an award-winning fundraiser working with multiples arts organisations and charities.
- Sarah Mann is CEO of Friends Families and Travellers with extensive leadership, strategic and operational experience.
- Debby Norris runs her own chartered accountancy business and has vast business management and advisory experience including 6 years with FTSE 100 plc companies. She is the Treasurer.
Charity Status
Join us
We need volunteers to help sort through donations; check toys are complete; clean items for families, check and fold clothing, package up parcels and undertake a variety of tasks. If you can offer a minimum of 2 hours a week, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us an email for a volunteer application form.
We currently are recruiting the following positions:
Fundraising Manager closing date 13 January 5pm. Interviews 29 January 10am – 1pm.
Testimonials
At the Family Information Service, we offer advice and support to families and make referrals to foodbanks, the Local Discretionary Fund and apply to charitable trusts for grants. However, there is a real gap when sourcing items in emergencies locally, or when the criteria are not met for assistance…We fully support the work Pelican Parcels is trying to do.”
