Streets Alive donation centre filling community needs

By Herald on April 13, 2021.

Cam Kissick, director of operations for Streets Alive Mission, stands among the many donations they are accepting for families in need at the RePurpose Donation Drop-Off Centre. Herald photo by Dale Woodard

Dale Woodard – Lethbridge Herald

What may be clutter in someone’s house may be exactly what’s needed in someone else’s.

To make sure families in need have what they need in their homes, Streets Alive Mission has once again stepped up and is welcoming donations at its RePurpose Donation Drop-Off Centre located at 10th Street South and 1st Ave. South.

Last spring when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, Streets Alive Mission recognized there was an increased need in the community for furniture, household items and clothing.

Partnering up with Mission Thrift Store Lethbridge, MCC Thrift, Lethbridge Salvation Army and MyCityCare Lethbridge, Streets Alive Mission provided the redistribution centre to help fill those needs with the thrift stores being forced to close due to the pandemic.

“A lot of people were staying home, purging their houses and cleaning their houses and they were doing rampant housing initiatives with individuals and trying to get them in the housing,” said Cam Kissick, director of operations for Streets Alive Mission. “A lot of these people had housing, but they didn’t have any stuff. So we opened up and we realized there was a need that was beyond just COVID for individuals who may have found housing in some way, but are just lacking the kind of necessities of the home. The Lethbridge community has been more than generous as they always are. So we’re very thankful for that.”

But the reality, said Kissick, is poverty extends beyond homelessness.

“People often times, while they may be able to be housed are still requiring to access community supports, for example the food bank or those types of things,” he said. “To have somebody in a house, they don’t have a couch or they don’t have more than one plate. We’ve been working with Lethbridge Family Services, immigration, homebase and all of these organizations that are working to house people. We’ve been working with them to make sure that when somebody is going into a house that can’t afford to get a dresser and a nightstand and a kitchen table, that they can come to us to get these things.”

In addition to furniture, the RePurpose Donation Drop-Off Centre will also accept clothing, household goods, hygiene items and kitchenware.

“A lot of people don’t think of the fact that you need a spatula, just to cook,” said Kissick. “Most of us don’t think about that, but kitchen utensils are such a big thing. If you’re talking about a family of five or six, (you need) the ability to have more than a couple of plates and a couple of forks so you can actually feed everybody.”

The RePurpose Donation Drop-Off Centre takes everything but bedding, said Kissick, due to the potential of bed bugs.

“We take clothing as well which gets sorted and sent to our clothing PIN bank and our mission. But we take everything because everything you have in your house is something somebody would maybe need in theirs.”

After the appropriate time of separation, the items will be sorted and redistributed to agencies who need them. After health restrictions are lifted, everything collected will be divided among the partnering stores.

RePurpose Donation Drop-Off Centre is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday excluding Tuesday afternoon. They are also open Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon.

Kissick asked that people don’t leave donations after hours, due to people potentially going through the items or taking them. People dropping off donations are asked to ring the buzzer on the west door and wait for someone to come take their collection.

“We’d like to thank the community of Lethbridge for being so supportive,” he said. “We just remind everybody to think of those who are having a harder time with what is going on these days than we are.”

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