MONTICELLO — The Threads of Hope thrift store has a problem. That problem, according to Dixie Shaw, program director of hunger and relief services for Catholic Charities of Maine, is too much stock for the Monticello-based outlet and not enough customers to purchase the goods.
“I tell people every day, it costs a lot of money to give away free food,” Shaw said. “We do not know at this time what will happen to the Monticello store or the entire operation in Monticello. We are working with our board, and our landlord has been more than helpful in helping us develop a plan that will allow us to continue to operate a food bank for southern Aroostook however no definite decisions have been made at this time. We are hopeful but no matter what we will continue to serve the folks of southern Aroostook somehow some way.”
To that end, the store located on Route 1 in Monticello is currently having a massive sale in the hopes of turning over large amounts of merchandise, which in turn will help generate revenue for Catholic Charities Food Bank.
Shaw said this is the biggest sale that they have ever held in any of their three northern Maine thrift stores. The sale will only be at the Monticello store and will be held on the two days of the week that the store is open in January — Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Shoppers will be able to fill a shopping cart with items in the store for just $25. In addition, those who wish to fill a bag provided by the store clerk, may do so for $1.
“We closed the store last year due to slower sales in winter months and higher cost of operation,” Shaw said. “We built a new business plan that was approved by our board of directors to look at more efficient ways of operating by reducing the days we were open and offering a different model of the thrift store ‘outlet’ for this past year. The Monticello store has not had the success we had hoped for and we are faced with some serious challenges in the coming months.”
The program’s mission is to feed the hungry and they do this by various fund-raising efforts. Thrift stores are but one of those efforts.
“If we don’t raise funds to operate our Hunger and Relief Program we will not be here,” Shaw said. “Our program is two food banks — our main site in Caribou and our satellite site in Monticello — a farm, known as Farm for ME located in Caribou, A Glean Team, which is an organized effort to respond to local farmers and gardeners to harvest leftover produce they may leave in the field and our disaster services component.”
Other fund-raising efforts include operating three thrift stores in Aroostook County, a large scale textile recycling effort located in Monticello, scrap metal and local support of businesses, individuals and service clubs to help do Catholic Charities work throughout The County.
Last year, Catholic Charities’ food banks, which service 24 food pantries from Wytopitlock to St. Francis, Fort Fairfield to Ashland and all points in-between, served over 26,000 people in Aroostook County.
“We also serve three school pantries and one soup kitchen,” Shaw said. “In addition to our own efforts of feeding The County we also work with Aroostook Agency on Aging and assist them in the distribution of 455 food packs throughout The County.”
According to Shaw, the thrift stores are open for one reason — to provide revenue for the food bank.
“Our thrift stores are the major fund-raising opportunity that we have,” she said. “In the past they have raised approximately 60 percent of the funds we need to operate our food banks. The Caribou store and the Presque Isle store offset the costs of operating our main warehouse in Caribou, where the bulk of our pantries pick up food each month.”
About three years ago, a satellite food bank was opened in Monticello to provide a location that better served the southern Aroostook pantries.
“It is two and half hours for Wytopitlock to travel to our Caribou warehouse one way and five hours round trip,” Shaw said. “That is like traveling to Portland and that was unacceptable to me. I wanted to be nearer to the southern Aroostook pantries to ensure that they had equal access to windfalls of perishable items such as milk and fresh fruits and vegetables.”
Catholic Charities received some start-up funds from a couple of grants to help them with equipment needs such as a forklift to unload trucks, an on-site freezer and cooler as well as some funds to help them begin a large scale textile recycling effort to help us raise funds to make the food bank in Monticello sustainable over time.
Recycling textiles was profitable at first, but that market has changed dramatically, Shaw said.
“We have had some really trying times in Monticello,” Shaw said. “When the textile market basically stopped, we had a warehouse full of bailed used clothing that was taking up space. Space costs money and the bails used our available space to store the donations we were receiving.”
Shaw said they receive donations on a daily basis at all their locations and during the warm months more comes in than goes out.
“We stock pile for colder months, but this year the stock pile overtook us in all locations,” she said. “Presque Isle and Caribou had their space full of items and Monticello was full of textiles that had no home.”
Shaw said the Monticello thrift store has not met the goals it set for the past few years. They lowered prices in the thrift store and tried to meet the customer’s needs as best they could but the bottom line is sales have been slow.
“We believe that it is due to the economy and the location of our store,” Shaw admitted. “Traffic zooms by us at 55 mph. Traffic doesn’t slow down until just after our lower driveway when heading north. We have tried different signage and even changed the color to red to hopefully get more drive-by traffic to stop. It hasn’t happened to the degree we need.
“We have some regulars and we are so thankful for their help and support of our efforts to feed the hungry, but the cost of operating our store model has been challenging. We build in a certain amount to each store budget to operate our food banks. It is not just a matter of meeting basic expenses of operating a store but we must make a certain amount for our food bank or there is no point to our store,” she added.
Shaw added they do not receive state or federal funds to operate the food banks and therefore, revenue from the thrift stores is critical.
Any organization that would like to help the Monticello Food Bank or any of our efforts to feed those who need, may contact Shaw at dshaw@ccmaine.org or mail checks payable to Catholic Charities Maine and indicate for Monticello Food Bank in memo or note or what your wishes are to P.O Box 748 Caribou Maine 04736. Individuals can also make donations to any of the Catholic Charities programs throughout the state on line at www.ccmaine.org.
