About Us
Fresh Start Furniture Bank - Furnishing Hope
Mission:
Fresh Start Furniture Bank is a volunteer run charity which helps restore hope, dignity, and stability in our community by recycling donated furniture and housewares, for free, to people in need. Our secondary goal is to keep these items out of the waste stream. In 2019 our volunteers put in over 16,000 hours of service.Who we serve:
The people served by Fresh Start have at least one thing in common — they need help during a difficult time.Fresh Start's customers are individuals and families in transition who need help to rebuild their lives. They include:
- Women and children escaping abusive domestic situations
- People coming out of shelters or halfway houses
- Individuals and families in recovery from physical and mental illness or addiction
- Veterans
- Victims of fires, floods or hurricanes
- Refugees and recent immigrants to the U.S.
- The working poor
What we do:
Fresh Start collects donations of furniture and home goods from the public and distributes them, for free, to people in need. In order to receive furniture people must obtain a referral from a social service agency. They then have 30 days to come in and work with a personal shopper to help them select their items. We stock just about everything to furnish a household.
Some Statistics:
| Agencies | Families Helped | Items Distributed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 75 | 180 | 2,435 |
| 2015 | 140 | 257 | 4,115 |
2016 |
196 | 328 | 8,244 |
2017 |
265 | 439 | 15,184 |
2018 |
335 | 595 | 17,802 |
2019 |
380 | 555 | 20,297 |
2020 (Covid) |
427 | 282 | 15,095 |
Budget:
Our 2019 budget is quite simple: We have a $120K budget which basically consists of $80K for rent, $21K part time employee, $5K to run our truck and $14K for other expenses such as insurance, dumpster, Internet, utilities, etc. Due to this tight fiscal management, we can furnish an entire household for about $175. Think about that...