With every truckload of furniture, mattresses, hygiene products, toys and other goods that is delivered to one of its warehouses, Morningday Community Solutions (MCS) makes it easier for South Florida charities to carry out their missions.
Founded in 2010, MCS is a nonprofit that collects discontinued, returned and overstock merchandise from retail partners like Amazon, Nike, Lowe’s, Bed Bath & Beyond and others and distributes the items to over 450 South Florida charities.
“We pick up from 21 Walmart stores from Jupiter to Pembroke Pines every week,” says Buddy Walck, executive director of MCS. “With Amazon, we get 500 to 520 boxes of stuff. We call it Christmas every day because we never know what’s inside.”
At MCS warehouses in West Palm Beach and Pompano Beach, volunteers sort the goods and make sure they’re usable. MCS recently acquired a 12,000-square-foot warehouse, its third, in West Palm Beach. “We’ve had to turn away trucks because we didn’t have the storage,” Walck says. “This is one that we really need so we’re excited about that.”
The warehouses are set up like retail stores. Approved shoppers for charities benefiting the homeless, disabled, at-risk children, veterans, recovering addicts and more visit the warehouses to purchase what they need, at 70% or more below retail prices. MCS estimates it has saved nonprofits over $5 million.
“We just charge handling or administrative fees,” Walck says. “We’re trying to extend the budgets of nonprofits. The whole purpose is for them to take that savings and put it back into their missions.”
Besides saving nonprofits a bundle of money, MCS keeps over 400 tons of merchandise from being dumped in landfills each year.
Each holiday season, MCS gives its nonprofits something extra. This year, organizations get a $50 credit in the MCS warehouse stores. “They have until Dec. 31 to use that,” Walck says.
With only five full-time employees and one part-timer, MCS relies heavily on volunteers, especially through HandsOn Broward, which connects people with volunteer opportunities.
“We can’t do our business without the help of our community,” Walck says. “High school and college students get their community service hours; companies do volunteer hours. We have some retired folks we couldn’t do without.”
For information, visit morningdaycommunitysolutions.org or call 954-590-8256.