A charity which closed its shop earlier this year is remaining open for business – and its founder is encouraging people to continue making donations.

Jessa’s Joybank’s distribution centre in Holland Place, Highfield has reopened for referrals, allowing the charity to collect donations of books and toys which they redistribute to children in the community – ‘tackling poverty and waste at the same time’.

The charity is now searching for a cheap rental space to replace the shop which it previously relied on for funding but had become unsustainable after a rent increase.

Fiona Cooper, 76, the owner of The Joybank, said: “Rents are now not sustainable. Because if you’re renting the property rather than owning it, and the landlord or lady puts up the rent, then it’s not worth opening as a business even.”

The charity started in 2020 and was named as a finalist in this year’s Sheffield Lord Mayor Awards.

Lord Mayor Cllr Safiya Saeed said that Jessa’s Joybank was “celebrated for founding England’s first year round toy bank, supporting families facing poverty and trauma”.

Penny Moreno, a customer at the shop before its closure, said: “At a time when families are struggling and there is hardship, I think we should do more to help families and children in need.”

The charity particularly looks to support families and children who are in need because they are vulnerable financially, physically, or emotionally.

Ms Cooper said: “We’ve got schools right now where 80 per cent of the kids have never had a book of their own. But it is actually a human right, as in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, that children have the right to play. Play is critical.”

The charity remains determined to continue its work and spread the word that despite the shop closure, they are accepting toy and book donations again. 

Ms Cooper said: “It’s Jessa’s Joybank because my daughter died some time ago. She had cystic fibrosis and had a double lung transplant.

“When she died she was in training. She wanted to work with other children and young people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. This is her legacy.”