Dealing with Surplus Donated Goods
At times of emergency, whether that be the Afghan evacuation, war in Ukraine, or heatwave fires in the summer, the public’s generosity often leads to a large influx of donated items. Havering Volunteer Centre has been involved in all three of these responses and has witnessed the challenges that surplus donated goods can bring. Their CEO, Shelley Hart, explored this complex issue with us and discussed what they’ve learnt from dealing with this issue three times in the past year.
Havering Volunteer Centre first became involved in the Afghan evacuation when they were approached by the Emergencies Partnership’s Local Lead in London. “We had seen what was happening on the news. Once people started arriving, there was the realisation that they had not very much, it was all that they could carry. I got a call from London Plus’s CEO, Martin Brookes, to say would I be able to take donations at my office. We have not got that much space, so I reached out to some connections. Luckily, the Local Authority said I could have a unit, just doors away from my office,” she explained. Recognising the scale of generosity, they opened the unit to take donations for just two days. Communicating a clear message for specific items, bagged by age, gender or type of clothing, they were soon inundated with over 1000 bags of donations filled with children’s clothes and toys, adult clothing, and toiletries. “We supported over 1500 bridging hotel rooms and delivered the donations to hotels across London,” Shelley said.
Before they could clear the backlog, war broke out in Ukraine and more donations came in. With refugees arriving in the UK over a much longer period than in the previous response, VCS organisations could allocate support more efficiently. “Ukrainian families were placed across various boroughs (of London). We could coordinate more effectively because we could identify a family of four and were now more aware of what they needed in the immediate. There was also more of a trickle of donations so we could go to specific places to get other necessary items,” Shelley described.
Not long after this, the VCS Emergencies Partnership hosted the second Quarterly Capability Event of the year, and first TTX (Tabletop Exercise), about heatwaves. Shelley attended, not knowing that just a few months later, the country would see record breaking temperatures with Wennington, in her local borough, seeing one of the worst wildfires of the summer. “I find learning from other people is the best way, I always come away with a little nugget that I think, ‘I will be able to implement that’,” she said. “The biggest thing (learnt at the event) was knowing that although we feel we are doing things on our own, we have back-up from the VCS Emergencies Partnership, we have connections there that we can draw on. If I have a problem, I do not have to suffer on my own, I can go to the wider network and pool those skills.”
Whilst trying to support the families who had lost everything in the fires in Wennington, the Volunteer Centre was soon met with a familiar challenge. “The Wennington fires were so massive and the devastation for those families was quite impactful. The Local Authority had taken the lead and had implemented their resilience plan. Unfortunately, there were a few people who went a bit rogue and started setting up donation sites. We had thousands and thousands of donations,” Shelley explained. “It was not coordinated and there was stuff all over the place. That was when we spoke to the families. Even though the Local Authority had their processes in place, they hadn’t spoken to the individual families and people involved to find out what it was that was needed, wanted and what they were missing.”
This human-focussed approach to emergency response is vital in providing the best support to people on, what is likely to be, one of the worst days of their lives. “They hadn’t really thought about the practicalities and the humanistic side of things. They were focussed on the logistical side of what and who was affected rather than talking to the individuals. There was a family whose son had autism and he could not cope with the disruption of being in the Family Assistance Centre and the noise in there, so we had to find a separate place. We managed to find him an area where he could be isolated if he wanted to, with green space so he could get out into the fresh air and gather himself. We really wanted to get the message out there that one size doesn’t fit all, you must talk to the individuals, take a breath, and take it at their pace. Their worlds had been devastated,” Shelley explained, providing a clear example of why emergency preparedness and response must be inclusive and considerate of everyone.
During this time, donations continued to arrive, and despite the Local Authority saying they no longer needed any, others continued to organise drop-off places and encourage it, leading to mixed messages for the community. “I could’ve clothed 600 families and we had 35 families in total that needed support,” Havering Volunteer Centre’s CEO said. Recognising lessons from the previous two responses, Shelley and her team sought to be sure the community knew their donations might be used to help others after those affected by the Wennington fires took what they needed. As there were still vast quantities of donations, Shelley opened their site to other members of the community in need of support. “We extended the offer to refugee families from Afghanistan and Ukraine, and anybody that is on low-income or facing financial hardship. They can contact us, come to the site, and choose the items that they like,” she described.
“The need is going to be even greater as we go into the winter months, particularly with the economic crisis that we are in. We have school uniforms, shoes, homewares, pots and pans, dog items, you name it, we’ve got it! The generosity of the community has been overwhelming.”
Many of the people using the donations are having challenging times, but that makes it even more important to ensure they are treated with the same dignity and respect that every human deserves. “We’ve tried to think about how we would want to walk in ourselves, so it is not a jumble sale, we try to make it look a bit like an eclectic shop, most of the clothing is on rails, arranged in size and gender. We want it to feel like a hug around their shoulders. We may be offering them something that is pre-loved, but we hope they feel the kindness that it was given with. We don’t rush people, they can take as long as they want and feel that they can browse,” Shelley said.
They also have an inventive way to make use of old children’s clothes that may not be good enough for everyday use but are too good to be thrown away. “We have a children’s muddy clothes area because some families have got nothing that they can use if they are going to the woods, taking the dog for a walk, or playing in the mud. All they have are decent clothes so our outdoor adventure area has clothes that they can get muddy and dirty and then just bin. It is clothes that are a little bit too faded or worn, and that area is really going down a storm!” she explained.