Settling into a new life can be scary, especially in a foreign land.
Second Harvest Community Thrift Store in Sharpsburg is making the transition easier.
Through a partnership with Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Hello Neighbor, refugee families are getting a lift creating a new home in the Lower Valley.
“With Second Harvest, we can go beyond the bare minimum and take the next step from surviving to thriving,” said Morgann Green, volunteer coordinator for Hello Neighbor.
The agency, located on Hamilton Avenue, helps refugees become self-sufficient by pairing them with residents to help navigate a new routine.
Second Harvest offers the newly settled immigrants all they need to outfit their home – at no cost.
“Whether it’s furniture or warm clothes or food, oftentimes they have nothing,” said Second Harvest executive director Bonnie DeMotte.
A visit to the store along Clay Street can help set up families for success, she said.
“We were seeing people coming to us through churches or other agencies and they had nothing,” DeMotte said.
She said school-age children were receiving free personal hygiene products through Fox Chapel Area’s Foxes Burrow, a space stocked with toiletries, clothes and snacks.
“Some students were needing to take items for their whole family,” DeMotte said. “I reached out to the high school and told them to send them here.”
DeMotte has been at the helm of the outreach effort since it opened in March 2021. The goal has always been to meet material and relational needs, DeMotte said.
The new partnership aligns perfectly.
Hello Neighbor could not provide a family to interview in order to protect their privacy and safety, Green said.
Volunteer Gwen Moulton has worked closely with many participants and said they are always grateful.
She uses Google Translate when necessary to communicate and learn their needs. Moulton has delivered clothes, toys, games and other items to help create a cozy home.
“The refugee families are full of gratitude because they often arrive in Pittsburgh with very little,” Moulton said. “Rarely do they arrive with winter clothing or cold weather footwear, nor do they have games or toys for their children.”
One participant wrote her a note that read, “We are very grateful for what you did for us because we are really desperate but now we are calmer thanks to your help. We will always be very grateful to you.”
Similar messages from other families are common, Moulton said.
Second Harvest operates with the mission to have people shop with dignity and choice, DeMotte said.
Families can browse the aisles for housewares, chairs, lamps, clothes and “all the little things, like a rug, that make a house a home,” Green said.
The site’s free fridge is stocked with food, too.
With Hello Neighbor programs, especially resettlements, the goal is to provide families with basic needs – a roof over their head, a job and school for their children, Green said.
“Because of time or capacity constraints, sometimes we can’t provide all the little details that make all the difference in the world but that’s where Second Harvest steps in,” she said. “Maybe we are giving them a couch but if you’re a family of 10, one couch isn’t cutting it. They can get more furniture from Second Harvest to make their home comfortable.”
DeMotte said families can shop without limit, based on need. Last week, a family of seven walked out with $1,100 in coats, warm clothes and household goods.
“We allow them to determine what they need,” she said. “If you say you need a coat, you get a coat. For the kids, it’s nice for them to get some toys that they can choose.”
Fox Chapel resident Joni Fuhrer serves as a board member and a volunteer. She tends to the front-area display, setting up furniture and primping accents to welcome shoppers with a “Wow.”
“Our donations are fantastic,” Fuhrer said. “People pause when they come in to take a look. It makes a statement that this is not your typical thrift store.”
DeMotte credited the people who donate to, and shop at, Second Harvest.
The store gets so many drop-offs that it is able to turn over the entire sales floor every five weeks. The board has dished out $125,000 in community grants since opening.
“We turn excess goods into community good,” she said. “The dollars you spend here get converted into food and clothes for people in need.”