A decline in clothing donations to its thrift store has the Salvation Army reaching out to the community to remind them donations go directly toward the local services they offer.
Darrell Pilgrim, ministry director​ for the Salvation Army Sunshine Coast Ministries​, estimates there’s been a 25 to 30 per cent reduction in clothing donations to their Sechelt store, specifically, over the past couple of months
“We would really like to encourage people to know that –– not even just our thrift store, but all the thrift stores –– if they donate locally to those thrift stores, all the proceeds stay on the Coast.”
The Salvation Army’s two thrift shops are among several charity-based shops on the Coast, which include the Healthcare Auxiliary Thrift Store in Sechelt (that store says it hasn’t seen a decline in donations in recent months), as well as the Sunshine Coast Community Services Thrift Store in Gibsons.
One hundred per cent of the money from the Salvation Army’s two Sunshine Coast thrift stores go back into the organization’s local food security program, said Pilgrim. The organization served more than 500 people last year alone.
While the organization hasn’t seen any major increases in use of their food programs in recent months, their challenge continues to be the rising cost of food. “Even though we have the potential of buying things in bulk, even in bulk, the cost of things has increased so substantially that that's where we're really finding the pinch.”
“Any support we can get from people would be really appreciated,” said Pilgrim.
Most of our –– I mean, profit, if you want to call it –– [it] comes from clothing, especially resellable clothing.”
Any clothing the Salvation Army doesn’t manage to sell gets sent to a clothing redistributor, to which the two local stores sent about 160,000 pounds of clothing last year alone. “We diverted that from the landfill,” said Pilgrim, “160,000 pounds.”
For those looking to donate, Pilgrim recommends folks call ahead to make sure the donation can be accepted –– the Sechelt store’s number is 604-885-7603.
