The Sharing Shelf was founded to address clothing insecurity and meet the basic material needs of low-income children and teens in Westchester County.
Clothing is a basic essential that we need to participate in our daily lives. Yet, across our community, many children and teens lack access to sufficient and appropriate clean clothing. They also lack everyday necessities such as socks, underwear, shoes, a toothbrush, or a bar of soap.
Children who are clothing insecure often miss school. Nearly 14% of Westchester children are chronically absent from school and clothing is one critical cause. When they are in school, they are more likely to endure bullying and suffer from low self-esteem. Chronic absenteeism and low self-esteem negatively impact a child’s academic success and, by high school, these students are more likely to drop-out, with lifelong economic, social and emotional consequences. Sadly, clothing insecurity disproportionately impacts children of color.
While Westchester is one of our nation’s wealthiest counties, more than 52,000 children live in poverty or a low-income family. According to the Westchester Children’s Association, more than 55% of residents are rent-burdened, spending more than one-third of their income on housing.
For many of these families, clothing for growing children, new school supplies, and other basic necessities like new socks, new underwear and basic hygiene become luxuries they struggle to afford.
13% OF PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN ARE CHRONICALLY ABSENT FROM SCHOOL.
IN SOME SCHOOL DISTRICTS WE SERVE, 8 IN 10 CHILDREN LIVE BELOW THE POVERTY LINE OR IN FAMILIES STRUGGLING TO SUPPORT THEMSELVES.
Deborah Blatt is an attorney with a background in international human rights and women’s rights. The idea behind The Sharing Shelf grew from her experience as a parent with children in a mixed-income public school where the school social worker balanced addressing the academic, social and emotional needs of her students while collecting clothing, coats and shoes. Deborah envisioned a place where the community could come together to collect and organize clothing donations and provide a one-stop shop for schools, government agencies and nonprofits whose students and clients faced clothing insecurity.
She founded The Sharing Shelf in 2009 and has shepherded its growth from a basement in Rye through its expansion to a 10,00 square foot clothing bank in Port Chester, serving more than 185 partners county-wide and engaging thousands of volunteers each year. For 17 years, The Sharing Shelf has been combating clothing insecurity by providing children and teens in need with clothing and basic essentials, empowering them to learn, grow and reach their full potential.
The Sharing Shelf was born, rooted in Deborah’s experience at the Barnard School, then a mixed income magnet Elementary School in New Rochelle. She envisioned a place to donate and assist those working with families in need. Her young daughter sketched the first logo – a shelf with the new name and items to share. Deborah connected with her friend Gerry Goldberg and they organized a round-table with others active in the community to discuss the concept. They visited similar programs in other cities to envision how the program would look like.
The Sharing Shelf received its first seed grants from the Sills Family Foundation and Ronald McDonald charities, and found its first home, 300 square feet in the basement of an empty building in Rye.
The building housing The Sharing Shelf’s basement home was sold and the program moved to 1,000 square feet in New Rochelle, inside a former synagogue. That summer, The Sharing Shelf launched its first Backpacks to School initiative with 200 backpacks for children in elementary and middle school.
After quickly outgrowing its new New Rochelle quarters, The Sharing Shelf moved to its current location in Port Chester, which had the added bonus of warehouse ceilings, a parking lot and – best of all – a loading dock.
The Sharing Shelf held its first Teen Boutique (Girl-Topia) in partnership with Girl Scout Caroline Stoerger who earned her Gold Award on the project. Over 70 teens benefitted and the initiative quickly became a core part of The Sharing Shelf’s programming.
The Sharing Shelf expanded its warehouse space to 4,100 square feet, opening the wall into an adjacent room. With the new space, The Sharing Shelf could welcome larger volunteer groups and accept more donations.
As the world changed, so did The Sharing Shelf. We launched our toiletry kit program in April 2020 and formalized our initiative to address period poverty and committed our program to provide all children we serve as well as local food pantries with these basic essentials. In May 2020, volunteers returned to our warehouse and created socially distant work spaces to respond to growing needs for spring and summer clothing.
After a year without in-person events, we relaunched our Teen Boutique events and re-envisioned the program by creating a series of small, localized events in partnership with area schools and community organizations. This is now our model for Teen Boutique and we host 6 events each season in rotating communities county-wide.
The Sharing Shelf was named Best Local Charity by Westchester Magazine.
The Sharing Shelf received Impact100’s Transformational Project Grant of $80,000 to create Teen Boutique In Real Life, a free store for under-resourced teens which will be located at The Sharing Shelf’s Clothing Bank.
