A charity in Bedford that provides essential items for babies and young children is struggling to keep up with soaring demand, with the number of families it supports nearly doubling in the past year.
Faces BabyBank, which opened in January 2023, initially helped around 1,100 families annually. That figure rose to 1,200 in 2024, but in 2025 it skyrocketed to 2,098 — a 75% increase from the previous year.
Chief executive Michaela Martindale said the charity is “supporting more families than ever before as more and more people are struggling with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.” She noted that many families now require repeated help rather than a one-time emergency referral.
In 2025 alone, Faces BabyBank distributed 36,400 items of children's clothing, 54,080 nappies, 536 tubs of formula milk, 298 newborn starter packs, and 3,768 books and toys. It also provided larger items such as cots, prams, highchairs, and bedding.
The charity relies entirely on donations and often needs to purchase essential items when stocks run low. Martindale said that even some employed parents “are still unable to afford essential items because wages are not keeping pace with household costs.”
“Every week we meet parents who are making impossible choices between paying the rent, heating their home or buying the essentials their baby needs,” she said. “The cost-of-living crisis hasn't gone away — it has simply changed, and families are living with its effects for much longer.”
Housing is another major challenge. Many families are living in temporary accommodation or overcrowded homes where there isn’t even room for a cot or pushchair.
Figures from the Baby Bank Alliance show that baby banks across the UK supported more than 400,000 children in 2025. Faces BabyBank operates from the Bedford Foodbank warehouse on Manton Industrial Estate.
Martindale praised the local community for its generosity but stressed that “demand is growing faster than donations.”