A Glasgow teenager is volunteering during the school summer holidays to help give the city's most hard-hit families some respite when it comes to paying for new school shoes.
Back-to-school shopping is a stressful time, particularly with the cost of living crisis and prices rocketing beyond belief. Though there's weeks left until children return back to school, parent's will no doubt have new school uniforms on their mind - filling them with dread.
To make life a little easier, 16-year-old Rossi Gaddi has teamed up with Box Fresh to offer children a pair of school shoes before the new term begins - and they are completely free for those who need it most.
The Cleveden secondary school student is spending his holidays cleaning and polishing donated shoes before they are made available for collection, at the Rosyth Rd store, or sent to community groups to be distributed.
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His mum, Amanda Gaddi said: "Rossi feels like it is a good idea to give back to the community.
"When you’ve got everything you need, it’s a good idea to give back to people who don’t have as much."
So far, a whopping 500 pairs of shoes have been donated to the shop - which has been running for six years - and will be able to help hundreds of school children.
Chris Ward, 36, owner of Box Fresh said: "It’s one less thing that parents need to worry about buying as part of a school uniform. Shoes are expensive and is something people are continually having to buy.
"We have over 500 pairs of shoes donated which is 500 families we will be able to help. We will reduce the financial burden for them.
"It’s potentially 500 kids that might not get bullied at school next year because their shoes are not in a great condition.
"Everybody is getting involved and will have a good feeling about themselves because they are able to give something back."
The shoes are currently in the process of being cleaned and ready for collection with more details on how to collect a pair to be released in a few weeks.
Chris has thanked Rossi, the community and Cleveden secondary school for their support with the charitable initiative.
He added: "In the past you may have binned a pair of shoes but now they will get a new lease of life for somebody else to use. If you put out good you will always get it back.
"A massive thanks to everyone who has donated, some have donated brand new shoes. It’s very overwhelming.
"We are proud of people in our city because everyone has stood together.
"People can come and help themselves, there’s no questions asked. They can try them on and take them away for their kids.
"I will contact community groups because I appreciate not everybody will be able to make it here and it might be embarrassing for people to come in and ask for a pair of free shoes."
Writing on Facebook, he added: "Over the summer holidays we will be accepting donations of kids school shoes (no trainers) that your child has maybe grown out of or won't wear again. Our aim is to clean these shoes, polish them and then have them on display in our shop.
"Parents or carers of kids who aren't in the financial position to afford new shoes can come into the shop and find their size and take them away for free, no questions asked.
"All we ask is if you can afford it, then please don't take any. We want to get as many pairs as possible out to children who really need them."
Updates on the sole swap campaign can be found here.
