How TUXchange became…

Why

Like most parents and carers I got frustrated and stressed by the cost of school uniform, my bill one summer, despite my pleas of ‘stop growing’, had been in excess of £400 and I only have one child! This cost is additional to paying extra for childcare, trying to take a holiday at the most expensive time of the year, and finding activities to keep the kids amused. More families get into debt buying uniform than they do at Christmas and even more families are now faced with the choice of buying uniform or food.

Solution

The initial idea was formed after my son told me to stop moaning about the costs and do something about it, but what? So after giving it some thought I realised that there must be an abundance of old uniform that children had grown out of but was perfectly good to be worn by another child.

My goal then became to set-up a service that gathered this uniform and make it available to others, this would not only bring down costs for families but also prevent good clothes from going to landfill and doing a little something to help our planet. I took to Facebook and TUXchange (Tuckers Uniform Exchange) was born in the Summer of 2020.

Impact

With the support from family, friends, local organisations and my amazing team of volunteers, TUXchange has provided 1000's of items of uniform to 100’s of families in the region, thus reducing the burden of cost and preventing good uniform from going into landfill. The service keeps growing and in Aug 2023 we opened a shop in the Kennet Centre, Newbury.

What’s in it for me? Well, I get to meet amazing, inspirational people. I talk to families, hear their stories, and seeing the look of relief and happiness when you provide a family with good quality uniform can be a bit emotional.