Charity stores in the Edmonton area are asking people to hold on to donations for now, as some Goodwill and Salvation Army stores are reporting increasing drop-offs — even though they are closed due to COVID-19.
“We know people are struggling with isolation, quarantine, they’re struggling with what to do. They want to clean their house, they want to donate to good causes,” said Doug Roxburgh, marketing manager with Goodwill Alberta.
“The problem is, we just don’t have the resources in place to take it right now.”
Goodwill closed all its Alberta stores and donation centres due to COVID-19 on March 21. Salvation Army closed down all its stores in Canada on March 17, and then shut down donation centres on March 23.
Major Al Hoeft from Salvation Army said that many of the donations — while dropped off with good intentions — are simply being damaged or stolen.
“With all our stores closed right now, there’s no way for us to be taking those in and protecting those donations,” Hoeft said.
“Some of them are getting damaged by the weather … some are getting rooted through and people are stealing things that people had meant to donate.
“Hold onto your donations. Put them in a bag, put them in your garage, put them in your closet, bring them by when this is all over, we’d love to receive them.”