Dunfermline team marks Amazon Global Month of Volunteering

Employees from Amazon’s fulfilment centre in Dunfermline have come together to pack 1,200 hygiene and baby kits filled with essential items for donation to Big House Multibank, supporting people in need across Fife. 

The Big House Multibank was co-founded by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Amazon UK in 2022.

The Multibank is a community donations hub, offering support for families experiencing poverty across the region. It gives surplus essentials like clothes, hygiene products, school uniforms and bedding donated by businesses like Amazon directly to those in need.

The products are distributed via the Big House Multibank to charity groups and care professionals who give them directly to people in need, when they need them. 

A team of volunteers assembled baby care kits and hygiene and toiletry kits packed with essential items for newborns and infants and every day essentials – supporting families who are struggling to afford the basics. Each kit provides new parents with the supplies they need during those critical early weeks, offering practical help and reassurance that their community cares. 

These events, including a litter picking event around the city, took place alongside further kitting events in Amazon buildings across the UK during the month of May – Amazon’s Global Month of Volunteering.

Global Month of Volunteering is an initiative that aims to help the communities where Amazon employees live and work. In May, thousands of Amazon employees volunteer alongside their colleagues, adding to the company’s efforts to support its local communities throughout the year. 

Finlay Talbot, is an employee at Amazon’s fulfilment centre in Dunfermline and took part in the packing event. He said: “Volunteering for Big House Multibank with my teammates this month meant a lot to me.

“It says something about a workplace when it puts its people and resources behind causes that matter, and being given paid time off to take part made a real difference. It let me show up for my community in a way that would be hard to manage on my own time.

“Doing it shoulder-to-shoulder with my colleagues made it even more rewarding.”

Community donations and employee volunteering are just two of the ways Amazon supports the communities where it operates.

Amazon co-founded The Big House Multibank in Fife with former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to support families in need. The Multibank network has now donated more than 12 million surplus goods to over 800,000 families across Scotland, Wales, Greater Manchester, London, Tees Valley and Birmingham. 

This year, the Multibank will send 1 million orders to families across the UK. 

Amazon has supported more than one million students across the UK with free STEM education programmes through Amazon Future Engineer and helps community organisations transport meals and other essentials to families in need through its pro bono logistics programme, Amazon Local Good.

Amazon partners with Comic Relief and is the official home of the charity’s iconic Red Nose.

Together with its employees, customers, and partners, Amazon has raised over £4.8 million to fund projects that support people across the UK, and around the world.

Amazon team in Edinburgh pack thousands of hygiene kits to donate to families in need

The kits of essential items will be donated to ‘The Big Hoose’ Multibank co-founded by Gordon Brown and Amazon

Employees from Amazon’s corporate office in Edinburgh have come together to pack 5,000 hygiene kits filled with essential items worth more than £25,000 for a charity initiative supporting families in need across Fife.

The Hygiene kits which contain essential items such as soap, shampoo, and shower gel packed in a cloth bag, were donated to The Big Hoose, Fife’s Multibank, co-founded by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and Amazon UK in 2022.

The Fife Multibank is a community donations hub, offering support for families experiencing poverty across the region. It provides surplus essentials, such as warm clothes, hygiene products, school uniforms, and bedding donated by businesses, like Amazon, directly to those in need.

The products are redistributed via the lead charity partner, The Cottage Family Centre, to charity groups and care professionals who give them directly to people in need, when they need them.

Kitting events also took place in Amazon’s offices in London, Swansea, Cambridge and Manchester with the aim of packing and donating 30,000 essential kits to the Multibank network across the UK.

The events are part of Amazon’s Global Month of Volunteering, an initiative that aims to help the communities where Amazon employees live and work.

During May, thousands of Amazon employees volunteered alongside their peers, adding to the company’s efforts to support its local communities throughout the year.

The volunteer initiatives helped address a range of issues, including STEM education and food insecurity.

Jane Poojari is an employee at Amazon’s corporate office in Edinburgh and took part in the packing event. She said: “I’m proud that my colleagues were able to come together to offer a helping hand to The Big Hoose through this volunteering.

“Amazon already donates thousands of products to the Multibank but it was great to play our part and support the incredible work that The Cottage Family Centre does to help those impacted by poverty in Fife.”

Pauline Buchan, Strategic Manager at The Cottage Family Centre, added: “Too many people in our local community are experiencing poverty and unable to afford the basic essentials so many of us take for granted.

“These kits will make a very real difference to families in our community who need support during difficult times. Thank you to the Amazon team for their ongoing support in helping us ensure The Big Hoose is here to help those who need it most.”

The Big Hoose Multibank has supported more than one hundred thousand of families in Fife with the donation of over a million surplus goods since it began operating in 2022.

Community support organisations, schools and colleges, homeless shelters, and elderly support services in the area have taken delivery of essential supplies from The Big Hoose.

The Big Hoose was the first Multibank established in the UK, an initiative co-founded by Gordon Brown and Amazon. It was followed by a second site in Wigan, Greater Manchester in 2023, then a third in Swansea, South Wales in 2024.

The initiative has now donated more than 2 million surplus essential items to over 200,000 families in need.