Needy family wanted

I know someone who can REALLY use size 14/16 girls clothes if anyone has any they are looking for a new home for.

 

300 local schools, churches, and agency send kids to us for free clothing

Basic Needs opened at 40/42 in May 2003 and authorized 300 churches, schools, and government agencies to use the clothing it collects and displays in the Cleveland area as their own personal clothing closet, providing for the clothing needs in the area. Our residents have donated and Basic Needs has provided enough free clothing that together we saved the local churches $1.4 million out of their offering plates by not buying the needed clothes up town. As our local schools and churches filled to capacity, the clothing exchanges based there were eliminated for "more important purposes." Not all our needy families can afford to drive and miss a day or more work and have their children out of school, while trying to get "free" clothing at Salvation Army in Raleigh or Smithfield. When the community gathers too many clothes, the toddler's clothing is given free to orphans in Haiti by the team of the Methodist Church and World Vision. Other clothing has been shipped to several countries, but primarily the cool/cold weather country of Armenia to be given away free to the 400,000 homeless by the U.S. State Department under our humanitarian aid programs. As all charities must deal with donations that are too dirty and ripped to give away, Basic Needs' volunteers spent most of their hours each year sorting out the items that must be sent to the landfill. 300,000 items this year will be redirected to the landfill. In the future, Basic Needs' clothing "rags" will be sent to recyclers promoted by the N.C. Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance. Because the physical donations are 10 times higher than in 2003 with the much higher labor requirements, extra volunteers are welcome. Donations are needed to cover the costs for the extra trash hauling. We are considering adding a volunteer or so to handle calls and the related referrals and the mailing and contact side of our gift certificate program. For each of the past couple of years, Basic Needs has printed and distributed 20,000 certificates to our 300 churches and schools and agencies. Even with our success story and high number of trashed items, many, if not most of our mid-week donations are being stolen and show up at the area flea markets. There is a new page on the Internet called: Cleveland Crime Watch. It displays the security clips of our thieves in action: http://4042needs.org/security/index.html Basic Needs must find $40,000 (plus money to buy the $300,000 in food we give away free annually) to cover the basic operating costs of running the warehouse operation, with no money used for staff salaries or even normal business reimbursements for the thousands of miles (over 200 car/truck loads) traveled by volunteers to shop for food and deliver it to the shut-ins. If an independent public charity cannot sell many items that are not even in its program area (housewares, toys, and books are normally only used to support fire victims), then it must count on community donations. If the money doesn't come in, you don't have any place for your people to get free clothing, food, discounted prescriptions, and computer/job training - that's what Basic Needs does and it is worth $10 million to the community since 2003.

 

Wow! Thank you for that explanation, Ron! May the Lord richly bless you for all you do!

I'm glad to hear you've found a way to recycle the rags, instead of adding them to the landfill.

One question: Does Basic Needs serve all of western Johnston County, or just Cleveland Township? What about Pleasant Grove township, and Elevation, is there any agency that serves that area?

 

If you donate to Basic Needs, try to do it when someone is there to take the donations inside. Otherwise you might end up donating to the white car bandits. :evil:

 

We always donate our clothing and housewares to Harbor Shelter or Harbor, Inc as I think its called. Its a non profit that helps domestic violence survivors set up in a safe place. Often they show up with nothing so they often needs "everything". Pizazz in Clayton (and one in Smithfield) accepts donations for Harbor. They used to have a website but I just checked for it and its gone.

Lauren

 

I don't mean this to sound ugly, but if you're saving local churches $1.4 million why must you find $40,000? Is it asking too much of the churches to pay or offer a small percent of that savings to help cover your basic operating costs?