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FEMA: Never donate clothing (it is never needed)
- jickes 2y agoI imagine that clothing is most of what people who don't want to donate cash are donating. Makes sense
- tolerance 2y agoSell the clothes for cash and give that. Lest the west coast flames are given more to feed from. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/best-intentions-when-disaster-relief-brings-anything-but-relief/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/best-intentions-when-disaster-r...
- excalibur 2y agoI have it on good authority that cash is also flammable.
- tolerance 2y agoThen Zelle it bro.
- readthenotes1 2y agoCoins. Just don't dip the pennies in oil.
- stableappendix 2y agoThis headline is distinctly untrue in the case of Western North Carolina; I was assisting in recovery efforts as a part of the NC Baptist Mission and one week post-disaster we were specifically being asked by the affected population to replace food in our deliveries with as many clothing items as we could find.
- reverendsteveii 2y agoI wonder if it's to-do with the fact that clothing is bulky and FEMA would be transporting donations from all over the place, leading to a really ineffective cost:benefit ratio. I believe you that clothing was what was needed in your efforts, but that doesn't necessarily mean that shipping sweaters from California is the best way to meet that need. As the article says, cash is best because "Organizations on the ground know what items and quantities are needed, often buy in bulk with discounts and, if possible, purchase through businesses local to the disaster, which supports economic recovery."
- doctorpangloss 2y agoIsn't there a difference between donated old and new retail clothing? Whereas canned food is more or less the same donated or purchased new at retail?
- subroutine 2y agoIf clothing is needed in a disaster situation, I don't see how a new retail sweatshirt and jeans would be much more impactful than a used sweatshirt and jeans, given people have enough sense to not donate clothing with non-cosmetic issues - i.e. faded ok; rips/holes not ok). Furthermore, if you have some money to spend on the effort, buying new cloths is a really poor choice among the options for spending it, for all the reasons they mentioned: organizations on the ground know what items and quantities are needed, often buy in bulk with discounts and, if possible, purchase through businesses local to the disaster, which supports economic recovery.
- doctorpangloss 2y agoI don't know. Either things that people say they want are paramount, or not. Unless they are starving, people would say no to "used food" like a hamburger with a bite taken out of it too.
- subroutine 2y ago
- MattSteelblade 2y agoThe headline doesn't quite match the article or the contents of the article. It says "USED clothing is never needed" (emphasis mine).
- ineedasername 2y agoYes, HN guidelines are generally to avoid modifying the source for headlines like this unless it is impossible/impractical otherwise. Doing so risks either accidental misrepresentation or editorializing, which is a bit of what happened here.
- RobotToaster 2y agoI imagine that applies to most single used items, it takes a lot of time to sort, and time is the one thing you have the least of in a disaster.
- subroutine 2y agoFEMA tips for helping disaster recovery efforts: volunteer time and donate cash.
- Finnucane 2y agoOne imagines that if a manufacturer was willing to donate a pallet-load of new items, they would be accepted.
- carabiner 2y agoTrue I wish I could edit the headline. But to be fair, 99% of the time people are trying to donate used clothes and not a fresh , unopened stack of Hanes white t shirts.
- ssl-3 2y agoI imagine that (at disaster scale where there is immediate need) it's easier/cheaper to find/keep and to manage/distribute conex boxes full of new clothes, than to ever deal with sorting, sanitizing, and distributing used clothes. I further postulate that this is true even if the labor chiefly consists of unpaid volunteers.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- JohnDeHope 2y agoI think sometimes guidance like this is more about the organization than the customers. This is true for all sorts of things: application development, disaster relief, etc.
- ineedasername 2y ago>This is true for all sorts of things: application development Do you mean I should stop dumping my old clothes in the app dev team's cubicles? Their gratitude has always been lacking anyway.
- subroutine 2y agoReally, our gratitude seems lacking after the 9th pile of Patagonia half-zip sweater vests?
- BoredPositron 2y agoHu… I always thought used clothes go the QA Team.
- csours 2y agoDo not self-deploy to a disaster area - it helps no one if you also need to be rescued. If you volunteer to help someone else, you can't do it on your own terms alone, you have to be aware and willing to work with what other people need. This might sound obvious, and the people who really need to hear this may not accept it.
- peppers-ghost 2y agoImagine you go through a natural disaster and someone donates bedbug infested clothing
- neilv 2y agoMakes sense, for disaster response and logistics at scale. On a small and local scale, such as for refugees who're being helped getting settled in your city, reportedly sometimes clothing donations is what they want. A few/several years ago, someone (who I knew to be genuine, and especially savvy about societal issues) asked for clothing donations, for a refugee support group. They had specs for kinds and sizes they needed. So I asked the person if the people wouldn't rather have money donations, so they could go to the stores in town, and buy whatever clothes best met their needs and preferences. But there was some problem, maybe the logistics of getting them to the stores(?), and they really did want clothing donations. The helpers seemed to be serious about it, and followed through. I happened to have some new ordinary clothes that didn't fit me well, and the helpers even came and picked up them up.