MOUNT VERNON — The ecumenical Living Water Ministries, having achieved success with its Angel Food Ministries program, has opened the Second Chance Thrift Store at 300 Tilden Ave., off North Sandusky Street in Mount Vernon.
Sales from the nearly 2,000-square-foot store help fund Living Water’s work in the community, and in other countries too, and those involved in the ministry have high hopes for adding even more services.
Once a computer system is installed in the store, said Mike Schupbach, one of the ministry members from multiple churches, the store will offer volunteer opportunities so workers can be trained in job skills that will help them find employment elsewhere.
“We want to help people out,” said Schupbach, “to give them an opportunity to buy clothing, furniture, etc. at a good price, and to raise funds to support our ministries, too. We want to develop it into helping people who can’t get a job by having them come into the store, learn to wait on customers, run a cash register, stock items and such. Then they can go to a retail store and say, ‘I have volunteered at Second Chance and you can talk to my supervisor about my skills.’”
The ministry also wants to offer basic cooking classes and help with computer skills for those who don’t have computers or know how to use them.
“We want to be able to help them get comfortable with a computer, learn programs that will help them,” Schupbach said.
The new computer system will also make it possible for Living Water to offer help in accessing the Ohio Benefit Bank, a system to streamline income tax returns, food stamp applications and requests for help with heating bills.
During business hours, the store accepts what Schupbach calls gently used — unbroken, undamaged, still usable — items, including furniture, glassware and kitchen items, clothing and accessories, shoes, books, jewelry, children’s toys and more. The items fill two rooms in the store, leaving just enough space in the back room for unloading Angel Food.
A nonprofit, nondenominational nationwide organization, Angel Food Ministries provides what it calls grocery relief by making discounted bulk purchases of massive quantities of food and selling it to families and individuals across the country. The Second Chance store serves as one of the local sites. The average retail value of each monthly order — meats, vegetables, desserts, fruits, eggs and more — is $60, but recipients only pay $30.
Orders are placed once a month and paid for in advance, then picked up on a specified day at the end of that month. The garage door in the back of the Second Chance building, and plenty of parking behind it, have proven helpful when volunteers unload trucks and sort orders for pickup.
Used books are quite popular at the store, said Schupbach, and customers have two options for buying: Visit the Tilden Avenue store or shop the online store hosted at Amazon.com. There’s a link at www.livingwaterministries.name to the bookstore site maintained by Cindy Schupbach, Mike’s spouse and fellow volunteer.
Business has been brisk, said Mike Schupbach, with children’s clothing and winter clothing, coats and sweaters going fast.
“If I’m not here for a couple days,” he said, “I come in and things look different. Sometimes people bring something in and an hour later it’s gone. And you can tell the veteran thrift store shoppers. They spend some time looking through the store.”
The store even offers organic cheeses made from local grass-fed cows’ milk from the Meadow Maid farm of Fredericktown. Owner Doug Daniels and Schupbach are experimenting to see if Second Chance customers are interested in buying Daniels’ products through the winter, after the Mount Vernon Farmers Market — where the cheese is sold weekly — closes.
Second Chance is open Tuesday to Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information or pickup of heavy items call the store at 397-2627.
