Every time you donate items or make a purchase at the HOC Thrift Store you are helping the Seneca County House of Concern maintain our mission of helping our neighbors in need. Both your donations of items AND your purchases make a difference. Don’t worry that your purchases might take something from someone who needs it more than you do. Because of the generosity of the community we rarely have a shortage of goods to place on our shelves and when necessary we always have items to donate to our clients.
We accept gently used clothing, accessories, shoes, household goods such as kitchen utensils, dishes, cookware, working appliances, books, toys, bedding and furniture that is in good condition. All items are checked closely by our staff before it is put on display. There is a lot of manpower that goes into sorting through the donations as well as the occasional pick-up of donations with our trailer.
While most of the donations are in good condition there is at times items dropped off or requested to be picked up that cannot be sold in our store or given to our clients. Our mission is and always has been to treat people with dignity and respect. Items such as appliances that do not work, old tv sets, furniture that is damaged or has bad odors and clothing that is dirty, torn, stained or too badly worn cannot be sold to our customers and will not be donated to our clients. Whenever possible we do pass along some of these items to other agencies, such as the Salvation Army, who can use them for their purposes.
Receipt or pick up of unusable donations is a strain on our already limited resources. Because it becomes an expenditure of our staff, our volunteers and our financial resources to spend time and energy moving these goods and then having to pay to dispose of them or transport them elsewhere we are enacting policies wherein we reserve the right to refuse items. We are always grateful for the donations of items the community gives us but we respectfully ask that our supporters do not put an unnecessary burden on us with items we can’t use. If you are not sure please contact us or ask before donating.