Princess of Wales’ surprise visit to Baby Bank charity
The Princess of Wales has said she couldn’t believe how quickly her youngest child was growing up during a surprise visit to the Baby Bank charity in Windsor.
Kate discussed Prince Louis, who celebrated his fifth birthday on Sunday, as she helped package donations for the charity.
“It’s crazy, it only feels like yesterday that they were this tiny and they do grow so quickly,” she said while folding a baby's one-piece suit on Monday morning.
The Baby Bank at Windsor was founded by two local mothers in 2015, Becky Gilbert and Eva Fernandes, and has since supported more than 24,000 families in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
The charity provides a range of items including infant clothing, new-born starter kits, school uniforms, nappies, beds and buggies.
The Princess has been a long-standing supporter of baby banks and has visited many across the UK.
In 2020, she brought together 19 British brands and retailers to donate more than 10,000 new items to more than 40 baby banks around the country.
During her surprise visit, Kate told the charity’s volunteers and local midwives: “I wanted to come and shine a spotlight on the amazing work that you are all doing collectively, it’s so needed.”
The princess, who said she had a “passion” for under-fives care, said volunteers at the charity were “living and breathing this”, adding: “You see their challenges and we all need to do as much as we can to help them.”
She has visited several community initiatives in the Windsor area since her family relocated there last year and she had told the organisers that she was keen to see their work first hand.
While there, she helped to organise and pack items from huge piles of donated clothing and remarked how that “must be one of the more time consuming elements” of the volunteering.
Cost of living crisis - Kate's surprise
She asked whether the charity had seen the needs of families change recently amid the cost of living crisis and was surprised to learn that the supply of donations had not matched a huge rise in demand.
“People are hanging onto what they have or passing it to friends or selling things like buggies for a little cash,” Lauren Hall, the Baby Bank’s co-chief executive, explained.
The Princess asked what items were “hard to come by,” and Ms Hall explained that nappies, buggies and larger items such as single beds were the most difficult.
She also discussed the importance of volunteering and mentioned the upcoming Big Help Out, a Coronation initiative on May 8 to encourage people to sign up for local volunteering in their communities.
The Princess said: “It’s important for people to know that you don’t have to commit to a full day, if you can just have a slot in the morning.
“It’s match-making people within the community who want to go and do something with the right organisation.”
Senior members of the Royal family are expected to take part in volunteering opportunities on the Bank Holiday Monday with the goal of creating a Coronation legacy of inspiring more people to volunteer long term around the country.
Ms Hall added: “We say to people if you can only give an hour, absolutely fine …We have 20 volunteers without whom we couldn’t operate.”
'People have busy lives'
One volunteer said she helped out for a few hours before going to the gym, to which the Princess responded: “No, you are absolutely right, you shouldn’t feel bad.
“People have busy lives. It’s fine not to commit yourself and work out what you can fit in with your busy day-to-day life.”
The Baby Bank receives no public funding and relies solely on voluntary help and donations and grants from retailers and local suppliers.
Before leaving, Kate promised to return to the charity one day with her own three children, joking: “Or perhaps my helpful ones and not my unhelpful ones.”
Ms Hall said: “She said she would bring her children down and I said I would bring my five-year-old to play with Louis."
