Hygiene essentials, such as toilet paper, dish soap, and paper towels, are among the most requested items delivered by The Hope Closet.
Nonprofit Spotlight
The Hope Closet Written by Emily Uhland | Photographed by Jonathan Fredin
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hen Fuquay-Varina native Ashley Manstedt started collecting donations for The Hope Closet, her garage filled within 48 hours. “We operated for about three months, and my kids couldn’t even reach their shoes in the garage,” Ashley says. Clean mattresses, linens, furniture, clothing, and toys poured in from the local community to support Ashley’s mission. 30 September/OCTOBER 2026
“It was phenomenal,” she says. “It was overwhelming, but it was beautiful. “That’s where The Hope Closet was born. It started as a grassroots effort to provide for a Section 8 housing complex and provide household items and basic functional essentials that would make a house a home.” Ashley noticed the lack of these types of household resources while she and other
members of her church were delivering food donations to Bay Tree Apartments, a government-assisted housing complex in Fuquay-Varina. “As we continued to show up there, what we were finding was not as much food insecurities as it was living conditions. Some of these folks were living in destitute and subpar conditions.” “It was the first time that a group of