Saturday is St. Patrick’s Day and in honor of the auspicious occasion that has us all pulling out any article of clothing with the color green, Good Samaritan Ministries would like to take a moment to share some of the ways they “go green” every day.
Most people are aware that GSM operates a food pantry and helps Brown County families with their most essential financial needs, but did you know that they also have a used clothing store?
“Our clothing store offers much more than clothing,” said Angelia Bostick, Executive Director of GSM. “In addition to good, used clothing, we sell bedding, shoes and small household items like dinnerware, knick-knacks, lamps, glasses and things like that.”
The clothing store serves a dual purpose in that it gives people who have clothing and household items they need to get rid of a place to go, but it also provides many families the opportunity to purchase something nice for themselves or their home. Most of the clothing items are sold for $.50 to $1 and even less when dime and nickel sales are offered.
“We don’t put out clothing or other items that are stained, dirty or unwearable,” Bostick said. “Our general rule is if you wouldn’t wear it or use it or allow your family to, don’t put it in the store for our families.”
Any clothing that is deemed unsellable is sent to another charity in San Antonio that will try to sell them in its store. If the items are still unusable they will be cut up into rags and sent to paint stores. So every article of clothing that is donated is reused in some way.
“One thing we are really trying to push this year – and we will have a bigger campaign in a few months – is to encourage people to shop at the clothing store and repurpose the clothes into something else,” Bostick said. “Repurposing clothing is incredibly popular, frugal and green, not to mention it really sparks creativity.”
A pair of jeans can become an apron, a purse or even a blanket. T-shirts can turn into jewelry, headbands or embellished for a completely different look. The possibilities are endless!
In addition to the clothing store and reusing clothing and household items, GSM also reuses plastic grocery bags.
“We have a group of volunteers that we call our “plastics engineering department” who sort through all of the plastic bags checking for holes and straightening them into a neat pile,” Bostick said. “They are then used to bag food in the food pantry and for the Food for Thought program. We also use them to bag clothing and small items that we sell in the clothing store.”
The bags that cannot be reused because of holes are sent to Walmart where they are recycled.
Any articles of cardboard are also reserved and donated to Aldersgate to be reused and recycled. Aluminum drink cans used by volunteers are collected and recycled as well.
“We are so aware of what it means to be frugal and to get by on very little, we seldom throw anything away,” Bostick said. “We will do everything we can to find alternative uses for almost everything.”
For example, last year the Food Bank sent cases of hair conditioner. The staff at GSM did a little research and came up with a list of uncommon uses for the product and attached the sheet with the items as they were given to our families.
So, while in the end the ability of GSM to “go green” may have very little to do with St. Patrick’s Day, perhaps the idea will stick in the hearts and minds of eco-conscious readers. And, if you’d like to throw a little “green” our way, donations may be mailed to P.O. Box 1136, Brownwood, TX, 76804 or brought in to 305 Clark Street. They may also be made online at goodsambwd.org.
Donations in the form of clothing, bedding or household items may be brought in during regular business hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Wednesday from 1 to 5 p.m.
