Princess of Wales folds clothes at baby bank
The Princess of Wales appeared to rule out the prospect of having a fourth child with a six-word admission despite cooing over baby clothes during a visit to Maidenhead on Monday, April 24.
Kate visited The Baby Bank on a surprise visit in her latest solo royal engagement, where she helped fold tiny baby clothes and remarked on how she forgot how small infants can be.
The princess, dressed in a cream Reiss blazer over a white top, was shown the piles of bags and boxes of clothes, toys, and equipment donated to The Baby Bank, which are then passed on to vulnerable families.
At one point during her visit, Kate stopped for a while to help volunteers at the centre to sort through clothes that had been kindly donated.
As she organised the clothing, Baby Bank CEO Rebecca Mistry told her that many people felt broody when they saw how tiny they were, and Kate answered with a telling comment.
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The Princess of Wales arrived for a surprise visit to The Baby Bank in Windsor (Image: PA Media)
As Kate and Rebecca sorted through the clothing items, the CEO remarked how people often felt broody when they saw the small size of the clothing, before adding: “Whereas I look at them and think I don’t want to go through that again.”
Kate appeared to agree as she laughed and said: “I’ve been there and done that.”
The princess has been a long-standing supporter of baby banks, with the one she visited on Monday supporting 21,500 people since it opened eight years ago.
She asked the charity’s joint CEO’s, Rebecca and Lauren Hall, a variety of questions about their set-up and the local demand for clothing, toys and equipment, while Rebecca explained how they try to match up donations with specific children so they don’t feel like they are relying on random handouts.
“Have you seen the needs of families change recently?”, Kate asked, surprised to discover that while they had seen a huge rise in need, this has not been matched by donations.
“People are hanging onto what they have or passing it to friends or selling things like buggies for a little cash,” Lauren explained.
Kate chatted with volunteers at The Baby Bank and helped to sort through donations (Image: Getty)
Kate beamed as she helped volunteers at The Baby Bank sort through clothing items (Image: PA Media)
Kate continued, asking: “What items are hard to come by?”, to which she was told nappies, buggies, and bigger items such as single beds, are often in short supply.
“There is community support out there but it’s knowing where to go to get that support. And there is a stigma that exists sometimes, isn’t there.”
She then examined a large pile of boxes that had been donated by Mattel containing Buzz Lightyear toys. “Oh yes, my daughter is a huge fan of Toy Story,” the princess said.
She also remarked on how tiny the clothes were, growing nostalgic as Prince Louis had turned five the day before. “It only feels like yesterday that they were this tiny. They do grow so quickly.”
She was also interested to hear about The Baby Bank’s reach as “people might not initially think it’s a primary need area”.
Rebecca then told her: “Well if you don’t mind we will take you upstairs to help us sort some stuff out,” to which Kate enthused: “Yes please!”
Kate has been a long-standing supporter of baby banks and children’s early development (Image: PA Media)
Faced with huge piles of donated clothes which needed to be sorted out into age categories, with less good quality or stained clothes discarded, she said: “This must be one of the more time-consuming elements.”
Chatting with volunteers, she joked: “I’m not going to double check your work, don’t worry. It’s actually very hard, some of them don’t have labels on them. Would you be looking for the quality of the items donated?”
The princess was also keen to talk about the importance of volunteering and The Big Help Out, an event being held on May 8 as part of the Coronation celebrations to encourage people to get out and volunteer in their communities.
She said: “It’s important for people to know that you don’t have to commit to a full day if you can have a slot in the morning. It’s match-making people within the community who want to go and do something with the right organisation.”
Kate heard about the crucial work the organisation carries out to support families in need (Image: PA Media)
Lauren replied: “We are open three days a week and we say to people if you can only give an hour, absolutely fine. If you want to stay until lunch, which is what a lot of people do, then that’s good too. We have 20 volunteers without whom we couldn’t operate.”
Kate added: “I do think it stops people, this feeling that they have to commit to a big chunk of time. They are nervous about committing. When you see the volume of stock here you can see that every hour helps.”
Before she left the princess sat down and spoke with some of the bank’s volunteers, as well as local midwives and health visitors who are instrumental in referring families for help.
She was told about how some families get incredibly emotional when they are given clothes, food, and equipment for their families.
