Thursday, March 28, 2024

Thrift store finds a new home

Posted

Upper Valley MEND has found a new home for the Community Cupboard thrift store. This month, Upper Valley MEND began renting the space on the corner of 14th and Front Street, in what was most recently office space for Evergreen Accounting. According to Executive Director Kaylin Bettinger, the space is exactly what they were looking for.
“It’s a great location, out of the downtown core, but still in the commercial zone. It has great accessibility from the highway and bus routes,” Bettinger said. “We began looking for a new space more than a year ago but hadn’t found anything like this.”
Currently Upper Valley MEND’s Community Cupboard is home to both the food bank and the thrift store. An extensive feasibility study completed in 2017 identified the thrift store as an area that could grow to better serve the community.  It also determined that it would be advantageous to split the thrift store and food bank into two separate locations, ensuring more space in the best location for both services.
“The new location is a light, bright space with good visibility off Highway 2, close to the retail area and the food bank,” said retail expert and Jubilee Global Gifts manager Mary Rossing. “It will mean serving customers better with a wider variety of goods and more choices.”
The goal is to move the thrift store into its new space by the spring of 2018. The food bank will remain at its current location and will use the extra space to provide more of a shopping experience for clients, according to Cupboard Program Manager Bob Mark.
“After the thrift store is moved we’ll begin focusing on converting the current Community Cupboard space into a new and improved food bank. We plan to change the food bank model so people can come and essentially shop for the food they need, using points instead of money,” said Mark.
Upper Valley MEND began looking for new locations for the food bank and thrift store because the lease at their current location is up at the end of 2019. The City of Leavenworth is expanding its water treatment facility across the street, and will eventually use the current Community Cupboard space as part of their operations. The city has been donating the current space to the Community Cupboard for more than 20 years.
Finding a new thrift store location and moving ahead with plans for an improved food bank in 2018 means that MEND is progressing on goals laid out in the 2017 – 2020 Strategic Plan.
“We’re excited about the future and what this means for the community,” said Bettinger.
Photo caption: Executive Director Kaylin Bettinger and Community Cupboard manager Bob Mark outside the new location for the thrift store on the corner of 14th and Front Street.
 

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here