{"id":386151,"date":"2026-01-23T13:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/386151\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T13:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:50:07","slug":"scotland-sends-baby-box-to-new-york-after-mayor-mamdani-cites-policy-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/386151\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland sends baby box to New York after mayor Mamdani cites policy | New York"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">New York\u2019s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has received a baby box from the Scottish government after modelling part of his election campaign on Edinburgh\u2019s example of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2017\/aug\/14\/baby-boxes-sent-new-mothers-scotland-from-this-week\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">providing each expectant mother with a set of essentials<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Scotland\u2019s social justice secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, said it would help the city\u2019s leader develop his own plans for a \u201cbaby basket\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She said: \u201cI read with interest that mayor Mamdani was considering a baby basket scheme in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/new-york\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York<\/a> and hope that, by sending a Scottish example, it will provide inspiration to help him to refine and develop his exciting policy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cScots share much in common with the people of New York; not least our history and heritage \u2013 as celebrated every year during New York Tartan Week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI\u2019m proud that we can also share a commitment to tackling child poverty and addressing the cost of living for the people that we serve. Scotland\u2019s baby box provides much-needed essentials for when a child enters the world, and it recognises the financial burden of those first few months of parenthood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The \u201cbaby basket\u201d proposal formed part of Mamdani\u2019s mayoral campaign, which focused on the cost of living. He has previously mentioned Scotland, Chile and Finland as examples of where the policy has been introduced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">More than 360,000 baby boxes have been given out to Scottish parents since the launch of the scheme in 2017. Every new mother is entitled to a box, which is delivered a few weeks before her due date and includes items such as books, clothes and a digital thermometer. The box itself can be used as a sleeping space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">This week, Somerville wrote to the mayor of New York City and had the baby box sent to the Mayor\u2019s Office for International Affairs in Manhattan \u2013 a journey of more than 3,000 miles (4,828km).<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Scottish government offered to work with the administration in New York City on child poverty and cost-of-living policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has received a baby box from the Scottish government after modelling part&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-386151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}