Media alert on our first quarter numbers issued April 2, 2025
Requests for Clothing Grew 37.5% in the First Quarter at The Sharing Shelf
This is Evidence in Real Time of Increasing Poverty in Westchester County
Port Chester, NY – April 7, 2025 – The Sharing Shelf, the nonprofit clothing bank serving
children and teens in need in Westchester County, announced today that requests for clothing
grew 37.5% in the first quarter of 2025, compared to the same period last year. The Sharing
Shelf received 1,572 requests in the first three months of 2025, compared to 1,143 requests in
that period of 2024.
As a result, the need for volunteers on whom The Sharing Shelf depends to fill those requests,
also grew in that period. In the first quarter of 2025, The Sharing Shelf had to fill 1,071
individual volunteer slots, compared to 523 individual volunteer slots in the first quarter of
2024.
“We’re seeing an extraordinary growth in requests for clothing in 2025 that should send alarm
bells ringing about increased poverty in Westchester,” said Deborah Blatt, Founder and
Executive Director of The Sharing Shelf. “Poverty is typically gauged by census data, but there’s
a significant lag time to that. What we’re witnessing is evidence of growing clothing insecurity
in real time.”
Requests to The Sharing Shelf for clothing for children and teens came in 2024 from 588 staff
members at 161 community partner agencies across Westchester, demonstrating the breadth
of need across the county. Those children and teens live in every community in Westchester.
In 2024, The Sharing Shelf provided clothing to 6,764 children and teens – an increase of 23%
from 2023. While Westchester is among the nation’s wealthiest counties, its poverty rate for
children under five was 11.1% in 2023, according to Westchester Children’s Association. More
than 67,000 children and teens live in poverty or a low-income home in Westchester.
