Homeless shelters normally don’t get lots of underwear donations, until yesterday that is.
Got Ginch, a cross-country underwear drive, stopped off at the Mustard Seed to donate 3,000 pairs of brand-new men’s underwear yesterday.
The Mustard Seed Edmonton is the third stop for Got Ginch, which is spearheaded by two Calgary-based entrepreneurs.
“I asked (homeless shelters) why underwear was on the top of their wish lists and they told me that most donations are used clothing,” said Brent King, creator of Got Ginch. “And obviously used underwear isn’t appropriate so many people do without, and I thought maybe we could do something about that.”
Ten major stops across Canada that the duo plans to hit are Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, then across to Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax.
“Once we hit Regina we get access to the bathroom and the fridge,” said Robb Price, creator of delivergood.org. “And we have some pizzas in the fridge that we can’t access yet, but we are pretty excited for when we can.”
This is the second year for Got Ginch, which plans to deliver all 30,000 pairs of underwear to 10 homeless shelters across Canada by May 28.
“In most cases people don’t have choices when they are living on the street,” said Sam Breakey, executive director of the Mustard Seed Edmonton. “So the very fact that they can go to an underwear bin and say ‘I want medium,’ ‘small’ or ‘large,’ have a choice, and it’s clean, is a great answer for people.”
