Pictured: E.ON's Employment Officer Naomi Webb

Businesses in the West Midlands can now benefit from a free service aimed at re-distributing items they do not require to needy and vulnerable people. 

By using Giving World Online businesses gain by reducing the amount of surplus stock they send to landfill as well as any costs they may incur for storage. 

And businesses who have already joined forces with the charity include John Lewis, P&O Cruises, and E.ON who gave portfolios that have been used by Nottingham YMCA to give to youngsters when they go for job interviews.

They also gave away laptop bags, used by people as school bags to carry their books in and also by disabled people to fit into their scooter to take shopping. 

E.ON's Employment Officer Naomi Webb said: "Working with Giving World Online was brilliant, simple and  efficient, all I did was upload the information onto the internet and then Giving World Online contacted me, they basically did everything else for me and dealt with the storage company that we use, it was really simple.

"It's a great charity, it's a great way for companies to get rid of any stock that they don't need, and a way for other people to make use of someone else's unwanted items.''

The West Midlands has the highest rate of child poverty in the United Kingdom, with 28 per cent of households struggling, and of the one million children living in the area in 2008, almost one in five (19.3%) lived in workless households, the highest proportion outside London and the North East.

The unemployment rate in the West Midlands stood at 9.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009, higher than the UK rate of 7.8 per cent and a higher proportion of children (19 per cent) lived in workless households in the second quarter of 2009, than the England average of 17 per cent.

Brian Langton, Giving World Online's Project Officer, said: "Our online service aims to let businesses redirect surplus goods into their communities, a surplus can be new unwanted items, excess stocks, and by-products like materials generated by the manufacturing process.  

"We do this through a network of bona fide charities and community groups, providing much needed resources and making a meaningful difference to the lives of vulnerable and isolated people. 

"Giving World Online is provided free of charge to donors and recipient charities and community groups, all charities have to pay are transport/postal costs and we need as many businesses as possible to register with us at www.givingworld.com.

Giving World Online, based at Burleys Way in Leicester, is supported by The Big Lottery Fund which distributes half of the National Lottery good cause funding across the UK and the fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need.