FASTER, EASIER & MORE CONVENIENT THAN THE REST! World Relief has partnered with Thrift Smart, a local nonprofit thrift store. We have found this to be the most effective way to distribute appropriate clothing based on gender, size and season. Clothing, including coats and shoes, and household goods can be donated there during their established donation hours. Please inform the person taking the donation you are providing the clothes in support of the efforts of World Relief.Clothing can also be dropped off and dumped into the ThriftSmart bin outside our office. Click Items to Donate to World Relief You can also help by purchasing items off of our Walmart and Amazon registries. The items will be shipped directly to us A great opportunity for your small group or community of friends is to put together Welcome Kits for our Refugees. Visit the WELCOME KITS page for more information. Why Donate Household Items to World Relief The refugees and survivors of human trafficking we serve typically come to us with little but the clothes on their backs and the few meager possessions they’ve been able to save when escaping their oppression.
Within our Resettlement group at World Relief Nashville, our mission is to provide these individuals and families the opportunity to rebuild their lives and recover their dignity, self-esteem, and self-sufficiency. We do this by locating and obtaining suitable housing for them and then, prior to their arrival in Nashville, we set that housing up with the basic needs they will require for this new chapter in their lives. These basic needs include home furnishings, appliances, bedding, kitchen and bath items, linens, and personal toiletries. By providing many of these basic requirements through donations we are able preserve their monetary funds allotment for expenses like rent, utilities, and food. The basic needs donated to World Relief go directly to our individuals and families to assist them in starting their new life in the Nashville area. How to Partner With World Relief by Donating Household Items There are a number of ways you, your church, or your service organization can partner with World Relief to make a significant contribution assisting these individuals and families.
Donate new or gently used items that are no longer needed due to replacement or downsizing. General items acceptable for donating as well as items that are currently in short supply can be found below. Challenge groups you are part of, including work, church and service groups, to put together a number of boxes or bags that contain specific household and personal items that individuals and families need. Examples of the types of boxes/bags include: (one needed for each individual) - Fill an appropriate container with some or all of the following based on gender: (Women) bath soap, shampoo/conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant, brush, sanitary pads; (Men) bath soap, shampoo/conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant, brush/comb, razors, shaving cream; (pre-teen) bath soap, shampoo/conditioner, toothpaste, brush/comb (quantities should be sufficient to last an individual four-six weeks). (one needed for each household) – Fill an appropriate container with some or all of the following: toilet paper, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, plastic bags, light bulbs, paper/spiral notebooks, pens/pencils (quantities should be sufficient to last a household of four one-two months).
(one needed for each household) – Fill an appropriate container with some or all of the following: dishwashing soap, bathroom and kitchen cleanser, toilet cleaner, laundry detergent, 4 gallon and 13 gallon trash bags, paper towels (quantities should be sufficient to last a household of four one-two months). (one needed for each household) – Fill an appropriate container with some or all of the following: sponges, kitchen towels, a bathroom (4 gallon) and kitchen (13 gallon) trash can, toilet brush, mop and mop bucket, broom and dustpan. (one needed for each household) – Fill an appropriate container with some or all of the following: cooking spoons (slotted spoon, serving spoon, wooden spoon, ladle), spatula, large sharp knife, small sharp knife/paring knife, can opener, measuring cup(s), measuring spoon(s). (one needed for each household) - Fill an appropriate container with some or all of the following: stock pot, frying pan, sauce pot, cookie sheet, baking dish, mixing and serving bowl(s).
and ask members to drop off items that meet our donation needs at either your specified location or during the week at our Nashville office. World Relief Nashville is happy to schedule a pick up for larger furniture items 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday by appointment. Please contact the Warehouse at 615-833-7735, ext. 222 to coordinate pickups. All other donations may be dropped off at 411 West Thompson Lane, Nashville, TN 37211. Drop off hours are Monday through Thursday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., and Friday by appointment only. If you would like to donate your items to a specific family, please make that specification when scheduling your pickup. World Relief Nashville is able to write tax receipts for all donations given to the general Warehouse, upon request. We value all donations using the Salvation Army valuation guide and will input these values into your tax receipt to make your tax deductions more convenient. We are prohibited by IRS regulations from writing tax receipts for donations given to specific refugees or refugee families.
Click on the links below in this box for more of our furniture: Old mattresses are among the worst kinds of household waste: Most recycling companies won't touch them, and landfills would rather not. But a new business in Nashville that started as a college project hopes to move mattress recycling into the mainstream — and employ former convicts in the process. Cutting into a mattress at Nashville's Spring Back workshop, Ron Harness runs his box cutter around a queen-size bed to fillet the fabric, in a process he admits is labor intensive. Even the best processing machines can only chew up a used mattress; recycling one requires manual labor. Harness rips off a cotton sheet, peels away a layer of foam, and shoves the steel springs into a baler, where they'll be compacted into a manageable clump. Harness has deconstructing a mattress and box spring down to a science. He keeps one eye on a stopwatch. "It's actually 7.62 minutes on a mattress, is my average, and 5.03 minutes on a box [spring]," he says.
Efficiency is the key to this enterprise. Otherwise, there's not a ton of competition for used mattresses. Even though they contain an average of 25 pounds of steel and foam that can be chopped up for carpet padding, recycling companies usually refuse to take a used mattress. "They've always been viewed as something you can't tackle," says Bobby Bandy, founder of EarthSavers, a recycling firm. "It needs to go in the landfill — and the landfill guys don't want it." Mattresses don't easily pack down like some other trash. More than a dozen states do have at least one recycler, but it's usually small in scale. So most mattresses find their way to landfills, according to an industry trade group. A few beds are diverted from the dump by being reused. "We partner with several people who remove mattresses and reconstitute them into new products," says Andrew Bloomfield of Mattresses Unlimited. Those new products are made from old springs that get a new cover, to be sold in discount showrooms.
But instead of feeding into the used mattress market, Bloomfield's company, which operates in five states, is now trying Spring Back. Salesmen are playing up the partnership, telling customers their old beds will be recycled. If the environmental benefits aren't enough, the enterprise also puts ex-convicts to work. Back in the Spring Back workshop, Ron Harness pulls at a stubborn spring. With a pair of pliers, he began yanking a thousand coils out of a king-size bed. He has helped refine the recycling process, but just a few months ago, Harness was behind bars for a serious misdemeanor charge. He started working with Spring Back through an organization associated with Nashville's Belmont Church called Isaiah 58. "Didn't know where I was going to go," he says. "The street was an option." Providing meaningful employment for hard-to-hire workers is where this venture doubles down on its social mission. Last April, the business plan from students at Belmont University took first place in the national Values and Ventures Competition.