The Hygiene Bank celebrates 5 years of fighting hygiene poverty

Today we're celebrating five years of The Hygiene Bank, thank you to everyone who has made us the charity we are today and aided in our mission to fight hygiene poverty.

2018: Our founder Lizzy Hall watched I, Daniel Blake and saw the reality of hygiene poverty in the UK for the first time. Shocked, she organised a collection for her local food bank and took to social media to drum up more support. A spontaneous spark of empathy that ignited a national charity and social movement. 💛

2019: Word spread and so did we. Already a network of 132 local projects run by 198 volunteers, we appointed a board of trustees, analysed our impact and started to develop a national strategy to scale, target and sustain our progress. Believing collaboration was key in tackling the issue, we started to look for sustainable solutions such as ‘business buddies’.

2020: Struck by the pandemic lockdowns, our public drop off points became unviable at a time when more of us than ever needed support. Undeterred, we hosted our first National Hygiene Week, officially established our founding partnership with Boots and collaborated with a plethora of brands to sustain donations. We remained resourceful, resilient and as responsive as we could.

2021: Under the ongoing covid cloud and a burgeoning cost of living crisis, the need for our support was rising exponentially. Our partnership with Boots matured and brands and volunteers continued to join our growing community as we reached more corners of the UK, all supported by a growing permanent central office team. 💛

2022: A year of major milestones and momentum. We surpassed a thousand tonnes of distributed hygiene basics, and in October, during our third annual National Hygiene Week, we published our groundbreaking research that highlighted just how big the hygiene poverty issue is in the UK, sponsored by our founding partner Boots. 🙌

2023: We proudly remain a people-powered organisation, united by the belief that everyone deserves to feel clean. We have over 200 local projects and 583 active volunteers, a dedicated central office team and a community of official brand partners. Our founding partner Boots hosts over 800 drop off points and our community has distributed over 1,449,850kg since 2018.

We operate under the belief that one day, everyone will have access to hygiene basics, and our charity will cease to exist.

Help make that happen.

Search our website to learn more, and join in.

#EveryoneDeservesToFeelClean #TheHygieneBank