The Polbeth Community Hub has been overwhelmed with donations as they collect supplies for those fleeing the invasion of Ukraine.
In just one week, the hub had run out of space to store all the provisions donated by members of the community for Ukrainian refugees in Eastern Europe.
Community development workers gave up a lot of their space and time to support the aid effort from the West Lothian Community.
Harburn Golf Club in West Calder assisted the Hub by offering up some of their space for storage. The hub had to stop taking donations eventually as they ran out of space just a week after posting the original appeal.
They collected gloves, hats, scarves, first aid products, baby products, sanitary products, breast pads, toiletries, pet supplies, colouring activities, canned and sealed foods, and torches for Ukrainian refugees.
Polbeth Community Hub linked with other organisations in West Lothian to better organise the aid effort. Both West Lothian Artistic Gymnastics and Astrogym picked up a large portion of the donations to pass along to be shipped in and around Ukraine.
Paige Harris Hill, an active member of the West Lothian community, collected baby provisions from the Hub to be sent to The Forge in Edinburgh, who will ship it for the Ukrainian aid effort.
Nicola McFarlane, a community development worker at the Polbeth Community Hub, said: “Everyone has been so kind.
“The amount of donations we received has been overwhelming!
“We couldn’t move in the hub for all the donations we got.
“We filled an entire shipping container then most of the space we had in the Hub – it was just crazy, we could barely get to our desks! Right now we’ve been focused on tackling food poverty in the area, but we felt the need to do everything we could for the people in Ukraine right now.”
The Community Hub also run the community shop out of their building in Polbeth, with all funds going back into serving the community.
A lot of the products are sold on a donation basis and although it is not a foodbank, those who are struggling are able to donate later when they are financially stable.
The shop has seen a sharp uptick in customers following the increase in the cost of living across the UK and has appealed to all local residents to help support their community by shopping at the community shop in the hub.
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