That Toy Thing appeals for funds to trial toy-sharing service

Baby charity Visit from the Stork CIC is trialing a toy-sharing service to tackle plastic waste and give Salford families access to good quality toys.

Tonight, a crowd-funding page for ‘That Toy Thing’  will go live at midnight ready to accept all donations however large and small.

The donations will be used to fund the new venture – a toy-sharing service where parents in Salford and across Greater Manchester can hire toys each month and return them to renew the same toys, or swap them for new ones.

Some £3.3 billion was spent by parents on toys in 2018 with one in three parents in the North West throwing away ‘good toys’.

Yet 52 per cent of families in Greater Manchester are living in poverty which means many children don’t have access to quality toys.

Kim Bond, 28-year-old co-founder of That Toy Thing, said: “With this subscription service we aim to reduce the amount of plastic toys that go to waste, save parents money on buying new toys and reducing the amount of clutter that is in people’s houses.”

Bond has been collecting the good quality toys donated by families, charity shops and nearly new sales.

Ms Bond said: “We are going to clean the toys then hire them out in subscription packages.

“£5 a month will get you £20 (RRP) worth of toys. £10 a month will get you £50 worth of toys and £15 a month will get you £90 worth of toys.”

The toys will be delivered to families as well as there will be collection points at ‘local businesses across Greater Manchester’.

That Toy Thing has a funding target of £10,000 to achieve by May. But on March 10 employees at Aviva (the funder) who get £15 each to vote. Most of the money needs to be raised by 4th March and 10th March. Once the funds are raised the trial will begin and ‘up to 60 families will be able to trial the service for free’. After the trial there will still be more funds to raise to keep the service afloat.

Ms Bond said: “We need as many people to support us as possible.”

“Any money donated will be put into the website so users can login, look at their subscription and share stories. It’ll pay for stock- specifically for sensory toys for families with children of disability…We will be paying volunteers expenses.”

More information on the project can be found on the crowd funding page, which can be accessed here.