The Hope Community Thrift store was started by a group of dedicated individuals from our church. I happen to think that thrift stores are pretty exciting in and of themselves (reduce, reuse, recycle), but this thrift store goes above and beyond all that. First, a little bit about them, from their website:

Hope Community Foundation activities are to receive donated items, i.e. clothes, furniture, appliances, medical equipment, etc. from the surrounding community and distribute these items to individuals and families in need of assistance. We are currently serving the St. Louis surrounding area.

Items are donated by people like me and you and then are sold at the thrift store. People in need can be qualified, through their church or organization, to receive vouchers for free items.

A family or individual needs to be qualified through a non-profit organization i.e. church or community civic organization. Each non-profit organization will need a community assistance director or of similar status. The community assistance director will be responsible for qualifying the family or individual in need and determine necessary items. The family or individual in need will be provided a voucher from the community assistance director allowing them to receive needed items at no cost from the Hope distribution center.

But wait, that’s not all…

Everyone who mans the store is a volunteer. The money they would have received in wages is donated to the church or non-profit that they represent! You can help in three ways:

Hope Community Foundation – provides you the ability to help your community:

1. Basic Items, i.e. furniture, appliances, clothes, etc. can be donated to help families or individuals in need.

2. Time – multiple positions needed. Presently at this time Hope is completely a volunteer organization with no paid employees. Time is precious to all of us, so the positions or duties are broken into small segments. This will ensure one person is not overloaded and will allow individuals the ability to donate just a few hours at their convenience. Some example positions are bookkeeper, laborers to pick up donated items, scheduler, website programmer, social networker, etc.

3. And of course – money. This is not the main focus of this organization but is still needed to help pay for storage of donated items.

The thrift store is located across from the post office in Arnold, MO, off of Jeffco Blvd, South of 141. The operating hours are M-F 9am-7pm and Sat 9am-5pm. Stop by and see what they have!