Coats and Toys Collected for Leeds Winter Appeals

Last month students and staff kindly donated winter clothing and toys to support families and communities across the city. Arranged by the Sustainability Service, Be Curious and Leeds University Union, the donations contributed to city wide appeals run by Zero Waste Leeds and Child Friendly Leeds.

A pop-up donation point in the Parkinson Building was open between Monday 27 November and Friday 1 December. In total 49 adult coats, 37 children’s coats and two bags of hats, scarves and gloves were donated.

These were passed on to the Leeds Winter Coat Appeal, which aims to collect and redistribute great quality, second-hand winter coats to people across Leeds for free, helping to save money and reduce waste. Last year’s appeal saw over 6,500 items of winter clothing go to families for free, saving people over £132,000 that could then go towards other essential items.

We also collected over 50 children’s toys and essentials which helped Child Friendly Leeds distribute over 500 gifts across the city last week.

Alexa Ruppertsberg, Head of Public Engagement with Research said:

A big thank you to everyone who contributed to one or even both appeals! Coming together with Child Friendly Leeds from the City Council and Zero Waste Leeds - a dedicated team of volunteers -  and our colleagues from LUU and the Sustainability Team and helping children, young people and adults in Leeds this winter makes the season even more special. It is great to experience what we can achieve together!

Although the Parkinson Building donation point is now closed, collections are continuing across the city. The final date for donations to the Winter Coat Appeal is Friday 26 January 2024. Coats should be warm winter coats for all age groups (fur coats or lightweight raincoats will not be accepted). Fleeces, waterproofs, baby cot sleeping bags, snow suits for babies and young children, pram footmuffs and hats, scarves and gloves are all welcome!

You can find your nearest donation point here to drop off your spare winter items.

You can collect these winter items for free by heading to your nearest collection point.

Other ways to have a more sustainable Christmas

As well as donating your unwanted winter clothes and toys, there are other ways you can give back this winter. We are in the process of opening a community pantry at Left bank Leeds where you can donate unwanted food items. Keep an eye out as we announce this in the coming weeks.

You can also contribute to sustainable communities by thinking about how you can gift sustainably this winter. From supporting small businesses to buying gifts second hand, buying gifts that support charities or giving gifts homemade with love, there are lots of ways that you can give sustainably. You can get more ideas for sustainable gifting in our blog post.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

We use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to guide our activity. Our work on the collection is linked to the following SDGs:

• • Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities
  • Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production
  • Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals

Find out more about our impact on the SDGs.