The Start Basic Needs Ministry was organized as a clothing ministry team of an independent Christian church, which was planning to serve the area centered around the Johnston County intersection of I-40 and N.C. 42. One of the principles of this church organization was to encourage its members to use their talents to serve the church and community in ministry teams. Ronald Still, a 16-year Garner resident and state employee, was encouraged to set up a clothing ministry. At the time, he and Larry Cope, another Garner resident, were working to develop a new district of the State Employees Association of North Carolina and saw an opportunity to develop a year-round community service project. Beside the community at large, the area near Basic Needs claimed over 10,000 government employees and their families. The Articles of Incorporation were filed in the N.C. Secretary of State's Office on February 25, 2003, with the Bylaws adopted on March 2. The clothing closet opened Saturdays from 9-6 beginning May 3, 2003, and then Mondays from 6-9 p.m. By the end of 2003, Basic Needs Ministry was serving many more people than expected, but still a small percentage of the population. It sought out the experience of the long established Junior League of Raleigh, which operated the Bargain Box in Cameron Village. Staff suggested that Basic Needs Ministry could reach even more people in need by permitting other organizations to distribute its gift certifiates. In January 2004, Basic Needs selected 200 church and community groups to distribute 18,000 gift certificates. Being a rural organization with no walk in clients, Basic Needs decided to offer either one or two sets of clothing for free to people in need using gift certificates. In Raleigh, with walk in clients, it was acceptible to offer only a shirt. The results were impressive, because by mid 2004 it exceeded its growth projections seven times over. In early 2004, the church leadership, facing growth difficulties, decided to dissolve and the members changed their focus to other churches, while Basic Needs changed its status to a community charity with a restatement of its corporate filings and requested IRS recognition of its independent tax exempt status by filing its Form 1023. This ensured all donors that their tax deductions would be protected. Needs assessment In 2003, there was no facility offering the public a variety of general clothing, whether new, used, free, reduced price, or full retail price in the 40/42 area. A quick glance showed over 1,100 children in the public schools were already enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program and were candidates for clothing support. It was almost a year later that the figures arrived from the Department of Public Instruction showing Wake and Johnston County public schools are now providing more than 7,000 low-income children with reduced price or free lunches within 15 minutes of Basic Needs warehouse. Poverty affects more than one in every five children in our area. The smallest township in the core area has almost 9,000 residents and the circle formed from a 15 minute radius has over 119,000. In the late '90s, churches that had tried to operate a clothing closet, closed them as the population growth came to their doorsteps. Even the schools that had clothing exchanges closed them and turned the space into classrooms. Small charities found it difficult to match their limited types and sizes of donated clothing with the various sizes and shapes of its community residents in need. In a telephone survey of the local churches, Basic Needs had the assurance of fifteen respondents that this service was needed in the community. We forgot to ask if they would financially support the effort. Triangle Area United Way needed an agency to serve this area that would provide either or both evening and weekend service, for those clients who work the traditional "9-5" work week and still need financial assistance. In 2004, after consulting with the Junior League of Raleigh and to help eliminate some of the economic challenges now being recognized by school leaders as more detrimental than racial background as limits to student achievement, local school guidance offices were authorized to provide clothing gift certificates to children and their families who were qualified for free- and reduced-price lunches. In support of school achievement and attendance goals, Basic Needs does not require the children to miss a school day to attend an interview or to pick out their clothing and it does not require parents to miss a day of work and its wages. Most residents in need of free clothing, who are least able to afford rising gasoline prices, were driving 22 miles or more for each round trip to an outside community and agency for access to their basic needs or went without. Clothing sources may require multiple trips with the entire family. Hourly workers missed work and that meant missing their hourly wages and the children, many dropping behind already, were missing more school. In September 2004, Basic Needs, with help from the State Employees Association of North Carolina, was one of the first charities to deliver items needed after the floods hit Clyde in Western North Carolina. In 2005, it stocked a new clothing closet to serve Wayne County. In 2006, Basic Needs began supplying clothing for the homeless in Wake County, expanded through Migrant Services and Social Services to all of Johnston County, and provided excess clothing, through the M.E.R.C.I. Center and U.S. Department of State's humanitarian relief program, to the homeless in Armenia and the orphans in Haiti. To ensure the community had a sufficient clothing selection, Basic Needs added racks and clothing until it could display 28,000 items sorted by category and size. It displays more clothing than any local charity. Concepts behind the clothing ministry: Based on track records nationally, nonprofits are generally successful in helping communities with at least 2,500 residents to support the clothing needs of their neediest residents. It is beneficial to have a lead organization to coordinate the collection and distribution. Despite pockets of poverty in the service area, the community is financially strong enough to support its own. Currently many of its residents drive donations out of the community and donate them to charities, which will not serve anyone from this area. This is why one Raleigh warehouse had 50,000 pounds of winter clothing and 150,000 pounds of summer clothing waiting to be shipped and why another local charity ships about 15,000,000 pounds of clothing a year from this region to world markets. It is a tradition for large families to share clothes between children as they grow through the sizes. Due to the large number of newcomers moving to North Carolina, the nearby extended family support system is lacking among our residents. Instead, some churches are offering a clothing exchange day during the year. Storage and display can be a challenge for both situations. Clothing reuse is widely accepted, because there are very few folks in any area who wear clothing once and toss it to the trash. Most folks just wash it and wear it again. Even in upscale Cary, the Dorcas shop has great success. Basic Needs' opportunity for clothing exchange continues the good environmental stewardship of reuse. Many associations do good benevolent works, but members fail to get IRS tax credit for their donations, because the associations are not also incorporated as nonprofit charities. When association members coordinate their efforts and needs with local ministries and charities, both are winners. A Different Philosophy Basic Needs seeks to place excess clothing free to people in need, whether in North Carolina or other parts of the world. A small truck load carrying 5,000 pounds of clothing might earn Basic Needs $50 in Raleigh from a broker, but its benefit to people who cannot afford clothing at retail may exceed $330,000. A 40' shipping container with unbaled clothing could deliver $1 million worth of clothing anywhere in the world. A container filled with baled clothing would have many times the value. |