To the editor: How and what to donate to the Thrift Shop at CAFC

As we welcome the start of a new year, many of us feel the familiar pull to organize, refresh our homes and clear space for what’s next.

The Chester-Andover Family Center, located at 908 VT-103 in Chester,  is deeply grateful that you think of the Thrift Shop when deciding where your gently used items should go. Your generosity allows our Thrift Shop to support neighbors throughout the year.

With that spirit of shared care in mind, we want to explain our donation times and policies and why they exist.

To donate

The Thrift Shop is staffed by dedicated volunteers who sort, clean, price and organize every donated item by hand. To do this safely and efficiently, donations can be accepted only during specific times and in a specific location:

When: 30 minutes after opening and 30 minutes before closing. The Thrift Shop is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

Where: Side door (left side facing the building) — please ring the buzzer.

These guidelines help ensure that donations are received when volunteers are present and able to properly process them, rather than leaving items vulnerable to weather, damage or safety concerns.

What to donate

The Thrift Shop accepts clean, gently used items in good condition, including:

• Fashion accessories: handbags, wallets, jewelry, ties, scarves, hats, gloves
• Small appliances in good working order (coffee makers, irons, etc.)
• Books: All books EXCEPT textbooks, encyclopedias, reference materials or religious materials
• Clothing: shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, sweaters, coats, socks — clean and free of stains or tears. Undergarments MUST be new with tags;
• shoes and boots
• Craft materials
• DVDs and CDs
• Kitchenware including dishes, pots and pans
• Linens, blankets and towels (not torn or stained)
• Small toys, games, and puzzles.

Donations are tax-deductible, and receipts are always available.

What is not accepted

The Thrift Shop cannot accept items that are chipped, broken, excessively dirty, covered in cobwebs or showing signs of rodent damage.

We cannot accept used child car seats.

When unusable items are donated, the Family Center must pay to have them removed, using financial resources that would otherwise go directly toward supporting families in our community.

A helpful rule of thumb is that if you wouldn’t wear it or use it in your own home, we likely can’t offer it to someone else.

A shared effort

Your thoughtfulness in donating clean, usable items makes an enormous difference. It allows Thrift Shop volunteers to focus their time and energy on what matters most: making the Thrift Shop a welcoming, dignified and reliable resource for our neighbors.

There are times — due to limited volunteer availability, space constraints or the volume of items already received — when we may need to pause or turn away donations, even during designated drop-off hours. We do everything in our power to avoid this, but sometimes we have no choice as it is simply an issue of lack of space or volunteers.

Thank you for your generosity, your understanding, and your continued support of Chester-Andover Family Center. We are truly grateful to be part of such a caring and engaged community, and we look forward to another year of working together to support one another.

With appreciation and warm wishes for the New Year,

The Chester-Andover Family Center board, employees and volunteers