Goodwill of Greater Washington temporarily stops accepting donations due to surplus
WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - Plenty of people have spent some of their downtime during the pandemic cleaning out their homes. That means they’re getting rid of lots of stuff they no longer need, and believe it or not, it also means Goodwill of Greater Washington is running so low on space, they’ve temporarily stopped taking donations.
“I come here all the time, like donating stuff. I’m a big donator, so hearing that they don’t have the capacity for people’s stuff right now is kind of crazy,” said Nicole Persons, a would-be donor who was turned away from an Arlington Goodwill Thursday afternoon.
She’s not the only one who was surprised.
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“I’ve been with Goodwill for 18 years,” Goodwill of Greater Washington Chief Marketing Officer Brendan Hurley told FOX 5. “And in my tenure here, we’ve never experienced anything like this before.”
Hurley said that throughout D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, 18 donation centers are absolutely packed right now, as are three big warehouses. Basically, because so many people have donated goods during the pandemic, Hurley said Goodwill now needs to give their shoppers time to catch up.
“It’s not something that we wanted to do, it’s, unfortunately, something that we had to do,” Hurley explained, adding, “we are filled to the brim. We just can’t take anymore.”
Goodwill of Greater Washington plans to start taking donations again on July 8.