The number of people we have clothed in just 15 weeks in 2016 hit 500 today, which is more people than we clothed in the whole of 2015. This is partly due to the acceleration of our outreach service, where we provide pre-sorted clothes to partners across Notts and into parts of Derbyshire, as well as taking on additional distribution points such as Asian Women’s Project in Hyson Green. Thanks go to Chris, Ian and Linda for their great work on deliveries. But the rise in numbers is also due to the fact that we have lifted the lid off a topic which was previously not discussed: the fact that across our cities high numbers of people are dealing with clothing poverty due to an economic crisis in their lives. We know that 1 million food parcels were distributed in the UK last year, but how many are coping with one set of clothes, little or no bedding or inadequate clothing to keep children warm and attending school? Today alone we clothed 3 families on site and 40 people through outreach delivery. We were delighted when one of our clients told us that when her children have outgrown the clothes we gave her she will send them to people living in poverty in Pakistan, her home country. This means that the clothes you donate to us have the potential to ‘clothe the naked’ several times, not just once. Prolonging the useful life of a piece of clothing helps us be mindful of the fact that the vast majority of our clothes were made in sweatshop conditions for a pittance of pay, by people with no employment rights and no health and safety laws to protect them. It seems respectful to them to ensure that every last bit of life is squeezed out of our clothes to go some way to justifying the level and type of labour that was used in their production.