Boxes of old clothes and knick-knacks ready for Goodwill must be dropped off this week or your donation will have to wait.
Goodwill North Georgia announced drop-off bays at donation centers will be closing until further notice. Donations have significantly increased in the last several weeks causing a backlog of items that would normally be moved into stores and sold, said Tenee Hawkins, director of public relations for the nonprofit.
Folks spring cleaning their homes while sheltering in place have dropped off items including books, toasters and other household goods, she explained.
“It’s really a space issue,” said Hawkins. “We’ve got more than we can handle right now. We [normally] have treasure hunters that come in every day. Our new items tend to go and now they are staying.”
Goodwill has 65 stores in north Georgia and 53 donations centers. Store locations started closing March 23 due to the coronavirus outbreak. Drive-up donations were accepted but they no longer will be after 4 p.m. Saturday.
Hawkins said the closures are temporary. Goodwill management is working on safety measures that will be implemented when stores reopen for shoppers, including extensive sanitizing and cleaning.
“Our customer safety is paramount,” she said. “Even [recently] in the limited hours that we have been taking donations, we have our process. There has not been person-to-person contact.”
Goodwill of North Georgia employs more than 3,200 people. None have been laid-off and all continue to get paid while not working because of the public health emergency, Hawkins said.
Store sales support Goodwill North Georgia’s 13 career center locations where the public can receive help with job searches and professional advancement. The loss of revenue will have an impact, said Hawkins.
The organization reports nearly 52,000 people received job training; and nearly 26,000 received help finding a job or starting a new business in the 2019 fiscal year.
“Our mission is to put people to work,” she said.
The public can continue to support the nonprofit by making a financial contribution, the public relations director said, in addition to shopping for Goodwill items online.
“The third thing that people can do is hold on to their donations,” said Hawkins. “Keep them safe and dry and clean so that when we reopen we can take all of those things and be able to reuse them.”
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