Our small wonders

Calls to support smaller community charities at crisis point as donations shrink but costs and demand spiral

- BY ROS WYNNE-JONES AND MARYAM QAISER

WHEN Mandy Harrison first came through the doors of Reach Community Grocers in Derby, she was at rock bottom.

“Last year, I was so low I wanted to take my own life,” the 63-year-old grandmother says. “When I found this place, I sat here and cried for two hours while they held my hand.”

Mandy is a breast cancer survivor and was struggling to get by on disability benefits when she first sought help at the charity.

“Tve been through a lot of trauma in my life” she says. “We were a happy family at one time. But, sadly, my husband died suddenly.”

‘At the grocers, a food shop costs just £6, but it is also the sense of community that has helped Mandy.

“T can't tell you how amazing this place is” she says. “I'm a different person compared to last year, when I was scraping the bottom of the barrel. This place helps massively, I can get some shopping and have a hot drink with the volunteers and staff. And I buy clothes from their charity shop.”

As the cost-of-living crisis deepens, millions of people across the UK are reliant on support from small charities. But now many of those charities are in crisis themselves.

A new survey of more than 700 small charities found nearly half are in such a grave financial situation that they're at risk of closing within a year.

One in 10 charities with incomes under £1million has less than six months’ funding left - pushed to the brink by a “triple whammy” of rising costs, increased demand and shrinking income from public donations and grants, says the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). Small charities like Reach Community Grocers make up 85% of the UK's voluntary sector ~ yet receive just 12% of total sector income.