The Sharing Shelf.

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity of visiting a very important organization in our local community. The Sharing Shelf, located in Port Chester, is a non-profit organization that serves as Westchester County’s clothing bank for children in need. Although we are proud to say that our county has a healthy median household income, around 9% of Westchester County residents live below the poverty line and struggle to cover everyday expenses. Many of these low income households spend about a third of their income on housing, leaving fewer resources for children’s needs such as new clothing and school supplies. The Sharing Shelf was founded to meet these needs by providing new and gently used clothing for children ranging from infancy through age nineteen throughout Westchester County.

According to the Westchester Children’s Association Homeless Children & Youth report, there were approximately 2,800 homeless students identified in Westchester County school districts in 2017, with an average of 193 homeless students per grade from Pre-K through Grade 12. Throughout the country, it has been recognized that students without access to adequate clothing often have lower attendance rates in school. In touring the Sharing Shelf warehouse, I was shown their process of collecting donated clothes in sizes from newborn through XXL and sorting them by size, gender, and even season to ensure that these disadvantaged youth receive the right clothing they need.

The Sharing Shelf often works with social workers, therapists, teachers, attorneys, and others working with low-income families in our community by fulfilling clothing requests on the family’s behalf. Volunteers then create packages with a week’s worth of seasonally appropriate clothing according to a child’s specific sizing needs. Twice a year the Sharing Shelf also hosts its Teen Boutique which is a free, one day shopping boutique for teen girls from families in financial need. Since their first event in 2012, the Teen Boutique has served over 1,500 teen girls throughout Westchester. Each summer, the Sharing Shelf also organizes its Backpacks to School initiative to fill new backpacks with grade-appropriate school supplies for low-income students. Since 2011, the program has provided over 7,000 backpacks to children in 40 county school districts, and continues to promote the academic success of low-income students today.

The Sharing Shelf provides crucial services to the most at-risk members of our county. It is a great place to donate your gently used children’s clothing, or to give back to your community through volunteer work. For more information on The Sharing Shelf, visit www.fsw.org/our-programs/the-sharing-shelf.

Sincerely,