Toys for the needy

In My Humble Opinion
1

Remember those Hohner harmonicas I donated?

Our local Community Assistance Program has (or will provide) a Community Toy Store. New, unwrapped toys are donated, and then they are offered for sale to needy people for 25% of their retail price. The reason the toys are sold (at a 75% discount) rather than just given away, is that the CAP believes that buying toys affords the parents some dignity, as opposed to taking a hand-out which they believe is degrading. Their website does say that they have vouchers for families needing extra assistance.

Our weekly community paper that arrived today has a Letter to the Editor that is critical of CAP’s approach. The writer believes that the poor should not have to pay for donated toys.

I understand CAP’s reasoning. I hope that their vouchers cover impoverished families’ needs. I also understand the letter-writer’s reasoning. I hope that at the end of the day, any unsold toys will be distributed free of charge.

I’ve emailed CAP to ask for clarification. (And to ask how they know what the retail prices are. I didn’t give them the receipt saying the harmonicas are $10 each on Amazon.)

What do you think? Does CAP, or the letter-writer, have the more valid point?

2

Someone was so mad that they took down the Northern Light website!

3

Works for me! It’s thenorthernlight dot com => Letters => Letters to The Editor: December 12-18, 2024 .

4

If a hand-out is degrading then isn’t selling a thing to needy people for 25% of its retail price also degrading just in a slightly different way?

5

Someone’s got it misconfigured that the www doesn’t work. This link works.

Letters to The Editor: December 12-18, 2024 | The Northern Light?

6

I think the idea is that the families can say, ‘We’re not that poor! We bought our kids’ presents!’ But that still leaves out the families who have no money to spend, who would probably love to be able to give their kids something for Christmas. (Hence, the vouchers.)

7

I can totally see a resolution where a donation to the program is suggested but not required for the toys. For parents that don’t see a value in needing to pay for the toys, or can’t pay, they don’t have to. For parents that have this need to pay as the director assumes, then they can pay.

8

I got an answer to my email.

Since our Toy Store team leader is very busy as our first store session is tonight, I will answer your Questions.

  1. Yes we do give vouchers for families that absolutely cannot afford presents for their children to shop for free. Generally that number is 5 to 10% of the families that sign up for our program. We vet them through our Chaplains to better understand their situations. We have never turned anyone down, & in fact our chaplains often discover other areas CAP can help them with that provides additional blessing to the families.
    These have the same per child limits as the rest of the shoppers.

  2. We ask donors to leave the price tags on & we base our 25% cost on that. If there is no tag, we have someone look up the equivalent on line & base it on that. Your note was seen & priced accordingly.

  3. A variety of things can happen with the unsold toys. They are generally stored for next season. After we are done with the stores we sometimes get requests from pastors, teachers, & counselors for toys for families they work with that may be so dis functional that there is no responsible adult. Or too proud to ask for help. Sometimes a sibling with no means wants to give something. Also through out the year there are occasions like floods, fires, or other tragedies we can give to as well. All this of course is free.

I hope this answers your questions. Based upon the unfortunate letter we will likely write up a response to explain our program some more.

The guy who responded is the one who invited us to Thanksgiving Dinner.