St Barnabas Hospice has announced its first pause on charity shop donations in its history after being inundated with items to sell.

The Lincolnshire based charity says “there is simply no more storage space available” following a two week donation initiative, designed to meet social distancing guidelines around Covid-19.

The initiative saw the charity receive more than 4,000 bags and boxes of donations, which is ten times the normal amount it receives during July. The total bags and boxes donated is estimated to be around 15,000.

Three cowsheds have been donated by Lincolnshire Showground to help the charity with additional storage.



“The last thing we wanted to do was to temporarily stop accepting items, but our Sorting team just can’t keep up with the speed that we are receiving them at the minute,” said St Barnabas Hospice head of retail Caroline Peach.

“They are also having to wait 48 hours before the items are deemed ‘safe’ to handle under Government guidance (this was previously 72 hours). This is why we are asking people to stop donating for a few weeks while our team of staff and volunteers works through the donations and gets them delivered to our charity shops to be sold.”

After being closed during lockdown the charity has reopened 20 stores in Lincolnshire.

Dane Jakins, Warehouse Logistics Manager added, “We have a brilliant team of volunteers who work alongside us both in the warehouse and in our charity shops.”

St Barnabas is among a number of charities reopening their shops following lockdown, while adhering to social distancing measures.

According to research released this month, by the British Heart Foundation, around one in three UK adults believe that charity shops are more important to society amid the health crisis than before.

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