Shoppers can pay for any item of clothing at the Montserrat Red Cross thrift shop with one to three cans, jars or sealed packets of food on 25 April.
The ‘Can 4 Clothes’ initiative is running from 8.30am to 4pm and the food will later be distributed to vulnerable families.
Programme management officer Akeisha Benjamin spoke on ZJB Radio on 18 April about the benefits of the day-long event.
She said the venture offers an alternative way for people to buy clothes, while helping the charity to gather food for members of the community in need.
“We have persons who always come to us and donate items for dignity – they give us stuff to give it a second love, to give it a second home, and usually we have plenty of surplus.
“We were coming up with ideas – what’s a creative way that we can get persons to come up these steps?” Benjamin said, adding that as a result they created Can 4 Clothes.
‘Everybody wins’
“If you have canned goods in your cupboard or you make that little extra when you go to supermarket, you can bring it to us,” the programme management officer explained.
Customers can shop with the food items, instead of using cash, which will then be packaged and distributed back to people in need, “so everybody wins,” she said.
The cans, jars or sealed packets must not be past their expiration date, they must not be dented or damaged, and still have their original label.
They will be distributed as part of the Montserrat Red Cross can project, where members package 15 to 20 hampers a month and distribute to vulnerable community members.
The thrift shop is located upstairs from the Royal Bank of Canada in Brades.
Those who just wish to donate food without purchasing clothing can continue to drop it at Rams Emdee supermarket in Salem.
