Sourcing
We acquire clothing items from 3 primary sources:
- Corporate and Union Donations
- Current and former employees with uniforms and branded-logo apparel
- General Public
We will work with the human resources and social responsibility departments of companies to raise awareness of our work and to develop programs allowing them to ship their items to us and/or facilitate collecting items from their employees to send.
Process
We expect that items will be classified into the following groups:
- SWAG (Corporate-branded clothing provided to employees and customers)
- Uniforms (provided by the company or purchased by employees)
- Retail – apparel purchased from stores that may or may not be branded.
The items we receive follow a basic flow:
Clothing is sorted by its condition, whether new or used. Used items have to be inspected for holes, tears, damage, stains, and so on.
SWAG and branded uniforms are decommissioned. Generally, apparel provided to employees that is branded with company logos, and especially uniforms, cannot be donated due to potential security issues. It can also cause brand damage. For this reason, the logos would have to be removed from these items.
Once items are sorted, SWAG items are processed by removing any heat-transfer logos and embroidered patches.
Since removing the logos sometimes leaves tiny holes or discolored areas or even a latent image of the previous logo, we cover the areas either with a different patch or heat-transfer logo.
All items we distribute include a private prayer and care statement for the person wearing them. to provide encouragement, hope, and to let people know that they are cared for and loved.