There is a place where thousands of men, women, and children wear footwear that is not fit for purpose. At least 280,000 homeless people (10,000 living on the streets) have no shoes or shoes that are falling to pieces, and that place is the UK.
Millions of pairs of footwear that are still fit for purpose are sent to landfill each week. This footwear can be recycled, repurposed, and used to combat footwear poverty. Men, women, and children benefit directly from donated footwear, enabling them to attend school, start a new job, and enhance their mental well-being by engaging in outdoor leisure activities. There are tens of thousands of children who don’t or can’t attend school or participate in sports (such as football, Rugby, Basketball, Netball, running, and Outdoor pursuits) because they lack suitable footwear.
*More than one in five people in the UK (22%) were in poverty in 2021/22 – 14.4 million people. Of these, 8.1 million were working-age adults, 4.2 million were children and 2.1 million were pensioners.
*Joseph Rowntree Foundation Report on Poverty in the UK 2024
Shoe Aid is supported with donations by some of the largest footwear organisations in the UK, recycling unused footwear, reducing its impact on the environment and landfill, which helps us to minimise footwear poverty, all of which are assisting Shoe Aid deliver its MISSION:
‘Make a DIFFERENCE and change LIVES‘
