THOMASVILLE, Ga. (WTXL) — New Covenant Church is using a growing thrift store to keep their services and community programs going.
- The church transformed its gym and bottom floor into three boutique-style spaces: women’s, men’s, and children’s, plus a distribution area for the homeless.
- Store sales help the church pay for rising expenses, including electricity, insurance, transportation, and unexpected fire inspections.
- Watch the video below to hear what neighbors are saying about the store and its impact.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
All these thrift items behind me aren't just for shopping, they're helping pay for the church's recovery program, electricity, and insurance.
I'm Layan Abu Tarboush, your Thomasville neighborhood reporter.
I'm checking on how New Covenant Church turned its gym into a thrift store to pay for basic expenses and outreach.
Back in January of last year, I showed you how New Covenant Church opened a small boutique-style thrift room to help cover some of those costs.
Now, just one year later, that idea has grown far beyond what church leaders first expected.
"Yeah the entire floor, because the back half of the floor isn't retail, but it's receiving, and supporting, and distribution," said Dave Allen, the pastor at New Covenant Church.
Pastor Dave and Alli tell me as they've expanded programs, including a recovery program, homeless showers, and feeding services and their expenses have grown right along with them.
Turning the gym into a full thrift store became a way to help keep up with those rising costs while continuing to serve people who rely on these programs.
"We pay probably $2,000 a month in insurance rates. No, it's $3,000. Is it $3,000? It's $3,000 altogether, just for insurance," said Pastor Allen.
On top of that, they're paying between $1,500 and $3,000 a month for electricity, depending on the season.
There's also gas for transportation and driving to Cairo six days a week for the women's recovery program, plus picking up unhoused neighbors four times a week for showers, meals, and services.
And now, they're facing unexpected safety upgrades and fire inspections costing anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000 just to stay compliant.
Pastor Dave and Allie say turning most of the building into a thrift space is one of the only ways they're able to keep up with growing expenses, and they put in the time and effort to make sure it's clean, organized, and has just about anything you might need.
"So, when you walk in, we have books, and records, and cassettes, and kind of like a little library section. And then we have a women's boutique, and that has women's clothing in it. It has jewelry, perfume, and little what-nots in there, maybe some boots and shoes. And then we have a men's, I call it a boutique, and my husband says it's not a boutique, because men's have a boutique. Men's department," said pastor Alli Allen.
I spoke with a shopper visiting from Ochlockonee, who tells me the prices here stand out compared to other thrift stores in the area.
"There's a lot of cheaper stuff here than normal places. You can basically find anything that you need here. It helps out with household, if you've got kids. We bought yarn here before, made blankets out of it," said shopper Krystal Mercer.
The thrift store at New Covenant Church is open Wednesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and donations are accepted through Saturday.
In Thomasville, Layan Abu Tarboush, ABC27.
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