Coat Donation For Homeless.

I gave two coats myself and collected several others to pas on to the rotary group here who are passing these to people who need them. They were both warm and wearable and I hope someone gets good use from them.

There is a man in my area who asks for coats , hats and gloves etc to donate to a homeless shelter in Liverpool. He collects for this shelter every year and takes several van loads to them .
We are having a big clearance of our coat cupboard in the next week and will ring him and he will collect them from me . I know that we have at least two waterproof regatta ladies coats in there so someone is going to get the benefit .

When I volunteered with the Salvation Army we gave out second hand clothing and second hand bedding. Obviously it had to be clean, but not brand new. Maybe different locations have different policies or maybe things have changed as I was volunteering before the pandemic.

One of the things all the homeless men wanted was underwear and socks. I was surprised that clean second hand things were given out. The centre also provided facilities for the homeless people to have a shower. Many of them left behind their used underwear (having been given fresh ones) with the wet towels which were all then washed for the following session and the underwear given out to new recipients. I'm shocked that anyone would refuse second hand bedding|!

Having said that some homeless people can be a bit picky about what they are offered eg. being offered a T shirt and complaining they don't like the colour, but most are really grateful for what they are given as long as it vaguely fits.

I look through charity shops at this time of year for warm clothing such as coats and hats & scarf's along with some other friends we then parcel everything up and send to our local well known supermarket whose staff take them over to Liverpool to distribute to night sleepers where they are gladly received by the homeless,these people give their time after they have completed their shifts at work.

Callistemon
I wish everyone was like you. 😄

MerylStreep

Callistemon
I wish everyone was like you. 😄

The world would be a better place, MerylStreep

Even my rags are clean - and some are even ironed, courtesy of DH! 😁

I still wear my M&S jacket with the dodgy zip and it stayed put yesterday. It just needs a bit of force persuasion.

Calendargirl
That’s awful. Our local church opens up one of the halls to the homeless on very cold nights.
The church supplies all the bedding. I know this bedding is second hand as I’ve sometimes taken it to the launderette.
I don’t know if this will apply to anyone but if you have old towels and happen to live near an animal sanctuary or rescue kennels they always want old towels.
In my shop we save all towels for the above.

Callistemon
Lip balm is your friend for getting the zip to budge.

Thank you I'll try it, it is just that if it's not pushed in with brute force properly, it unzips from the bottom.

I run a food bank in a very deprived area and we take donations of second-hand clothes. We would be very grateful for such a coat. If items aren’t taken, we bag them up and sell them for rags. Not a lot, but every penny helps to keep the food bank going.

Gosh if I was homeless I d want a warm coat tied up with string over none at all
If the poppers work what’s the worry
You are right Charity shops can’t sell defective items but SELL is the word this is being given away and can be very very useful even if it’s used at night to put over as a blanket
If a homeless person would refuse anything not perfect well they are not very cold or hungry are they ?

I have always found M&S very obliging. Don’t they recycle clothing? I’m sure if you put a not on the coat about the problem they would consider repair?

It would cost more to repair a coat than it costs them to make one. I doubt they even have anywhere to send it. Most M&S clothes are now made in Bangladesh, I think. there used to be a factory in the next town to me that supplied M&S but it closed ages ago when they outsourced to cheaper parts of the world.

Doodledog

It would cost more to repair a coat than it costs them to make one. I doubt they even have anywhere to send it. Most M&S clothes are now made in Bangladesh, I think. there used to be a factory in the next town to me that supplied M&S but it closed ages ago when they outsourced to cheaper parts of the world.

When they started outsourcing, the quality of their clothing deteriorated. I bought some items that didn't stand up to the wash. In fact, one sweater degenerated so much I wouldn't even expect a homeless person to wear it... it would've come apart at the seams within days.

I would suggest you are willing to get rid of the coat as it has a fault. Why pass on to someone who may well appreciate it being war but not find it particularly serviceable. I wouldn't pass it on to anyone who would not be able to repair the zip.

I'm a bit bewildered by some responses on this thread.

I couldn't mend a zip, but many people can, and when some people have nothing it seems a shame to throw away (or give for rags) a coat that is otherwise perfectly serviceable, particularly as it fastens with poppers and would be a lot better than nothing for someone who is cold.

Maybe a homeless person won't have the facilities to mend it, but I can't see why a charity shop shouldn't take it, label it as in need of a new zip, and sell it on so that someone can get a new coat very cheaply. My sister could mend it in an hour. Whatever happened to 'make do and mend'?

A bit off-topic, but I meant to add - I have been known to unravel hand knitted garments that don't fit or have worn in places, and knit them up again. (It doesn't work with shop-bought ones, as the seams are usually oversewn by machine, so they don't unravel.) I can afford to buy new jumpers or new yarn - it's not about the money, but about waste and adding to landfill.

Fair isle and similar patterns came about because people did this. If they didn't have enough blue wool to make a jumper, they could add in some red, make a pattern of it and it would go further as the child grew. It's become an art now, but it started as a way to save waste.

How many people still have button boxes? Everyone had them in my mum's day. I have two, as one is full, but my daughter doesn't and nor do her (fashion conscious) friends. She will ask me to change the buttons for her to customise a garment, or if I don't have one to match the one she's lost, but a lot of people would throw something away rather than get new buttons ( often the ones who complain that it is our generation who has ruined the planet ).

I wouldn't send it to a charity shop but I would certainly offer it to a homeless person.

It would be ideal if everyone could be given perfect garments to wear. But someone who has lived in a dirty, possibly torn, jacket for months or years is not going to worry about a zip not working so long as they can fasten it and be warmer and dryer. Homeless charities reach only a small percentage of homeless people, especially those who move around. So where do other homeless people get all these perfect garments from I wonder?

Calendargirl

Thanks for all comments.

DH has today dropped the coat off at the collection point for donations for homeless.

Hope someone finds it useful.

SEE ABOVE QUOTE.

Thanks everyone, as the OP, the coat was passed on for the homeless last Wednesday.

Callistemon
It sounds as if WD40 is your friend here.
Obviously making sure that all the material is well covered.