By Michael Buchanan & Eleanor Lawrie Social Affairs team

Last Christmas, hundreds of local residents in Fife ended up with an unexpected present - a colander worth £60.

The kitchen utensils had ended up back at a local Amazon distribution warehouse - after a company went bust. But that was just the beginning.

Since then, about 34,000 local families have received everything from mattresses to nappies, after the online retail giant and a host of other companies, including Co-op, were persuaded to plough their unwanted goods into a community which is arguably struggling like never before.

Of the 375,000 people who live in Fife, about one in three are in fuel poverty. One in five children live in a low income family.

Meanwhile, nearby Dunfermline houses the UK's biggest Amazon "wish fulfilment centre". The size of 14 football pitches, it handles millions of goods each year, some of which are never used.

These could be online returns, or items that are discarded for other reasons such as out of date branding, or because a third party retailer does not want them back.

Amazon has been criticised in the past for the way it has handled the situation, with a 2021 ITV news investigation suggested it was destroying millions of items of unwanted stock each year.

Its treatment of warehouse workers has also come in for criticism, with employees recently involved in a series of walkouts over pay.

But Amazon is not the only famous name involved in this charitable endeavour. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is also involved. He encouraged the online retailer to get involved with the Big Hoose Project, run by charity - The Cottage Family Centre charity - which supports people in poverty.

The initial aim of the project was to help 15,000 families this year. But it has been inundated, and eight months after formally opening has already supported more than twice that, redistributing more than 220,000 goods.

"The families I work with are the best budgeters in the world. But you can't budget when there is not a budget to budget," said Pauline Buchan, manager of the Cottage Family Centre. "We can't make money appear that isn't there."

She has been surprised at the level of need emerging, a combination of the lasting effects of the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis.

"In the first three months of the project, we ran out of bedding three times, we could not meet the demand."

The charity has linked up with dozens of other organisations across Fife, including churches, foodbanks and schools, ensuring the goods reach far into the community.

A quirk of the hotel industry has allowed a laundry firm to donate large quantities of bedding.

Most hotels rent their bedding and the company, Fishers, supply and clean the goods for many hotels in Scotland and northern England. When the hotels no longer want the bedding, sometimes after 80 washes, they are donated to the project.

"The cleaning products and the mop bucket", local resident Louise Rogers is clear about which new additions to her home she is most excited about.

The Kirkcaldy mum of two, who suffers from mental and physical health problems, has been helped multiple times by the Big Hoose Project.

She's also received mattresses for her children, cleaning products, a kettle, bedding, clothes, shoes, nappies and wipes.

"If it wasn't for the Big Hoose project, I'd be a mess - I wouldn't be able to afford to clean my house," she says.

"I would rather my kids eat than I eat, I would rather they have clean clothes and new stuff rather than me having all that."

Amazon insists it is moving towards a world where it recycles, re-uses or donates wherever possible, and is set to announce next week that the Big Hoose Project will be expanded, initially into Edinburgh and the surrounding areas.

The global retail giant was talked into the scheme by Mr Brown, who grew up and still lives in the local community.

"We're a bedding bank, we're a toiletries bank, we're a home furnishings bank, we're a baby bank, all rolled into one," said Mr Brown, walking round the charity's donated warehouse surrounded by large brown boxes full of everything from toothpaste and bedspreads, to nappies and curtains.

Many of the recipients are at breaking point, he says.

"I've lived here all my life. When I was in school I saw the mines closing, linoleum factories closing and there was real poverty. But I don't think I've ever seen poverty as bad then as now."

Mr Brown suggests this new scheme is a way to help solve the returns issue while ensuring the items benefit those who need them most.

The emphasis is on repairing and redecorating, rather than just giving people things.

"It's not just a handout, it's about making their home in to better places and making them feel good about themselves," he says.

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