MORE than 13,000 families from across Fife are to be helped thanks to donations from Dunfermline's Amazon fulfilment centre.

The delivery giant is working with a coalition of charities and local businesses, as well as former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, to assist families around the Kingdom.

Amazon has provided a £150,000 grant – along with logistics support – to help create a new project site in Lochgelly, which will work with a coalition of charity partners to deliver essential goods to local families.

The lead charity partner, The Cottage Family Centre, provides a range of support to families and individuals who are vulnerable to social exclusion as a result of poverty, poor housing, unemployment, relationship breakdown, drug and alcohol problems, or other health-related issues.

Former PM and Dunfermline MP Gordon Brown, and The Cottage Family Centre manager Pauline Buchan are encouraging other charities based in Fife to get involved and help the campaign reach its goal of supporting 13,000 families by the end of the year.

Mr Brown said: "Communities are at their best when they are working together to make sure everyone is supported.

"I would like to thank Amazon, The Cottage Family Centre, the coalition of charity partners and the many people working on this project who have created a successful and scalable model which directly reaches those most in need across Fife by donating and delivering thousands of products to them.”

Pauline added: “It has been a challenging time for many of our service users, so it’s been a huge boost to work with Amazon and our fellow coalition partners to help so many families in need, and we look forward to continuing our work through the coalition for the rest of 2022.

"I have seen first-hand the way these donations can make life that little bit easier for people and thank Amazon for its continued commitment to helping the local community.”

Charities can make referrals on behalf of service users for the household goods they require which will then be processed by the Amazon project team and made available for collection by the charities.

All donations are being processed at a new warehouse in Lochgelly, which has been provided free-of-charge by Bob Purvis, Chairman of The Purvis Group, to help facilitate the project.

Donated items range from toilet roll, nappies, wipes and toiletries to clothing, backpacks, home furnishings, lightings and electrical products.

Organisations that have collected goods via the coalition so far include Children’s Clothing Bank Dunfermline, Fife Women’s Aid, Kirkcaldy Foodbank, Autism Rocks (Fife), various local Home-Start centres and Fife Alcohol Support Service, along with 10 Fife Council charity sectors across teams such as children and families, social work and young people.

In addition to hundreds of thousands of product donations, Amazon will provide pro-bono volunteers at the charity coalition warehouse until the end of June 2022.

Amazon's UK Country Manager John Boumphrey said they were committed to supporting the communities they serve.

“Our team in Dunfermline is working side-by-side with the charity partners to fulfil the needs of their service users," he said. "As a result, we are delighted to say that we have already supported 3,500 more families in Fife since starting deliveries at the end of last year, and we look forward to helping many more people in 2022.”