Charity donation bins begin to reopen across HRM

Being stuck at home offered many the chance to declutter their closet, and with some local organizations reopening their donation bins, bags of unwanted items can now find new wardrobes.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Halifax was one of many non-profits to suspend pickup from its donation bins in March because of COVID-19. It has about 50 bins in the region, which have now all reopened.

Manager Community Engagement at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Halifax Shelda Cochrane, asks donors to use precautions when placing donations in the bin, by sanitizing after touching the handle and maintaining physical distance if others are around.

“Our bins are being serviced every single day, so when they go they are cleaning up around the bin and wiping the handle, but we want people to take on some of the responsibility too,” she says.

Big Brothers Big Sisters owns its bins, and sells the used clothing and household textiles to Value Village. All of the money that is generated from those sales go back into its youth mentoring programs.

“We are probably more grassroots than a lot of other bins out there, who are also doing great work, but it depends on your take on what you want to support,” she says. “But for us you are supporting kids in your neighbourhood.”

Cochrane says the program coming to a temporary pause, will have significant impact on its finances.

“That social enterprise generates between a quarter and a third of our annual opperating budget for Big Brothers Big Sisters,” she says. “So when you take out more than a sixth of it, that will be hard to recover from.”

Cochrane says already the organization has been overwhelmed with generosity. 

“We've seen a big uptick in donations and have had to get a storage unit to put them in for the time being,” she says. “The volume is great but it has been challenging.”

A map with the locations of Big Brothers Big Sister's donation bins can be found at dontthrowitout.ca, as well as information on scheduling a home pick-up which has also resumed.

The IWK Foundation has also reopened its donation bins, while Diabetes Canada is aiming to reopen its bins in Nova Scotia on July 12.