Basic Needs Ministry -
2008 Gift Certificates Basic Needs Ministry has the largest display of free and low cost clothing in the Wake/Johnston area. Over 800 major brands appear on the 28,000 garments on display racks. All clothing is sorted by volunteers and displayed by category and size.
Needs, Program Guidelines, Gift Certificate Availability, Value of Services Provided Basic Needs Ministry, Garner, is finishing 2007 after providing over $10.3 million in total benefits and starting 2008, its sixth year, by offering $1.9 million in buying power to local organizations, enabling them to help their clients who are in financial difficulty. As members of the community bring more than 300,000 items a year into Basic Needs' warehouse in preparation to give away to the 7,200 children plus their families who live in poverty, it is now up to the churches, schools, and social agencies to provide the certificates to those in their care sphere. About 20,000 certificates are committed each year, with each certificate able to provide one set of clothing. By 2003, most area schools and churches had eliminated clothing closets due to lack of space and volunteers so Basic Needs started by leasing a small warehouse unit and began distributing free clothing to those in need in the Garner, Fuquay-Varina, Clayton, and Angier areas. In 2004, after consulting with the Junior League of Raleigh and to help eliminate some of the economic challenges now being recognized by school leaders as more detrimental than racial background as limits to student achievement, local school guidance offices were authorized to provide clothing gift certificates to children and their families who were qualified for free- and reduced-price lunches. In support of school achievement and attendance goals, Basic Needs does not require the children to miss a school day to attend an interview or to pick out their clothing and it does not require parents to miss a day of work and its wages. Local churches and schools were authorized to use the warehouse as they would use their own clothing closet, until they could develop a program to support their own communities. Basic Needs, with help from the State Employees Association of North Carolina, was one of the first charities to deliver items needed after the floods hit Clyde in Western North Carolina. In 2005, it stocked a new clothing closet to serve Wayne County. In 2006, Basic Needs began supplying clothing for the homeless in Wake County, expanded through Migrant Services and Social Services to all of Johnston County, and provided excess clothing through the M.E.R.C.I. Center and U.S. Department of State's humanitarian relief program to the homeless in Armenia and the orphans in Haiti. Many individuals and groups have been stepping in to provide a few hours of volunteer services to help their communities, but more are needed as Basic Needs copes with handling 60 times the amount of items in 2008 than it handled in 2003. Even its trash bill is 60 times more. The following organizations are authorized to distribute Basic Needs gift certificates for 2008. This list is not kept up to date. Photos show Ron Still, Director, carrying part of the certificates from the office to the car on the way to the Post Office. Click to enlarge. Facilities Authorized to Distribute Basic Needs Ministry's Free Clothing Gift Certificates in 2008 2008 Agencies - Internet List - Updated through February 21, 2008
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