Streets Alive in need of men’s clothes for its PIN Bank

Streets Alive Mission is in need of the community’s help as they remain in desperate need of gently used jeans and pants for men.

Streets Alive operates a Person in Need (PIN) Bank, which allows clients to access clean clothing.

“It’s the workhorse of the mission,” said Marie McLennan, associate director of philanthropy for Streets Alive. “It is a giant closet for the impoverished population here in Lethbridge, so anybody can come and get whatever they need — a full set of clothes, boots, shirts, even just socks, underwear.

“When people come in and get a change of clothes, we then take their old clothes and launder them here in our facility and they are all recycled, so it’s constantly changing over.”

But on Friday, they were forced to turn away 38 men from the PIN bank as there was nothing on the shelves to exchange.

“We’ve run into a really critical shortage for us, actually, especially in men’s clothing,” said McLennan. “We don’t usually see this kind of growth this time of the year. This is what we expect in the fall when we do our regular clothing drives, but this year there is so much more need. We are already up 34 per cent and it’s only May.”

Last year, Streets Alive provided more than 5,000 full sets of clothing which includes a shirt, sweater, one pair of underwear, socks and pants, to those in need.

They are currently in desperate need of men’s jeans and pants size 30 to 34. Men’s shoes, especially sizes 7 to 10, hoodies, light jackets and underwear for both men and women are also needed.

“When we start to see numbers drop and shelves start to empty — the pant rack being so empty — that tells us there is an increase in the population because we’re giving out, but we don’t have anything to recycle, so that is a huge, huge problem.”

On Monday morning, there were eight pairs of men’s jeans hanging, but by Monday afternoon, they had received two bags of jeans from Bibles for Missions.

“But that is a short fall cry from where we need it to be. We are looking for hundreds of pairs of jeans to get us through the summer,” said McLennan.

A few years ago, Streets Alive conducted a strategic analysis of the mission within the community.

“A lot of people felt that we really didn’t have an overtly large street population because you don’t see the regular perception. You don’t see people with shopping carts. You don’t see bag people or anything like that in Lethbridge and that is hugely in part because of the PIN Bank.”

Streets Alive, located at 323 4 St. S., accepts donations for gently used items Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Financial donations are always encouraged and can provide the mission with the ability to purchase much needed items.

Visit www.streetsalive.ca to learn more or donate online.

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