October 2024 - MCC Thrift on Kent Volunteer Newsletter
Keeping our valued volunteers informed
GM’s Corner
Hello, my friends!
By the time you read this, the cash desk and corresponding remodelling should be done. The last few weeks have been a journey: noisy, messy and change. I appreciate your patience through all of it and your support.
In just a few short weeks the Christmas season begins! As the shop transforms with festive decorations I want to extend a special thanks to our “Christmas volunteers” as they have done an
Meet Priya
What is your role at MCC?
I am the new retail sales associate. I work with Eun Kyoung and Heather to keep the store running well.
What do you like to do in your free time?
In my free time, I like to cook and try new recipes. I also like organizing and crafting—particularly scrapbooking. I often scrapbook gifts, as the time and effort put
Stephen’s learnings
Dear Thrift on Kent Volunteers,
I hope this message finds you well! I wanted to take a moment to provide an update on the Community Safety and Outreach program and share some key insights from my experiences over the past several months.
incredible amount of work leading up to this.
As we approach the Thanksgiving time, I want to express my sincere thanks for each of you—your time and contributions are very appreciated, and you truly are what makes MCC Thrift on Kent great. I wish you all a blessed time wherever you may go and with whomever you are with.
Kent Buhrke
General Manager MCC Thrift on
Kent
into making gifts shows love.
What is a hidden talent of yours?
When I was a child, I didn’t think I was very good at drawing. After finishing school and having children, I started drawing again and discovered I have a talent for it! I have also recently started painting. Would you rather ride a bike, ride a horse or drive a car?
I love to ride a bike. Back home, for short rides I preferred a bike. Here we mostly need to drive a car because of the distances. But I would prefer to bike if I could.
Context and Goals
The Community Safety and Outreach program is a peacebuilding initiative that aims to build relationships with marginalized individuals in our community. As the Community Safety and Outreach Associate, my primary goal is to foster connections, treat every person with dignity and respect and create bridges between those on the margins and our store. I strive to remember names, check in on aspects of their lives they’ve shared with me and offer simple gestures of kindness like a glass of water. In taking this approach, I’ve found that even those who appear the most hardened are still often willing and
able to express appreciation for this compassion.
Balancing Safety and Compassion
In building these relationships, I want to stress that I will always prioritize the safety and well-being of our staff and volunteers. If someone’s behaviour is making you feel unsafe, please find a staff member or myself and I will take appropriate action, including asking them to leave or issuing them a trespassing ban. Our store must remain a safe environment for everyone. Although peacebuilding is filled with give and take, respect is non-negotiable.
Shoplifting: A Complex Issue
Retail theft is a significant issue across the country. The Retail Council of Canada (RCC) recently estimated Canadian businesses lost around $5 billion to shoplifting in 2023. In this role, I have learned that all shoplifters are not the same. While some steal out of greed or to fund active addictions, others take items like shirts and shoes out of necessity. On a weekly, if not daily, basis, I talk to marginalized people who have had all their possessions stolen because they live in shelters or encampments where there are no safe places to store their things. Some of these individuals ask me for help directly and some are flagged to me by concerned volunteers and staff. When I see or am made aware of someone taking a pair of shoes or changing their clothes in the changeroom, I approach them, introduce myself and offer to discuss how I can help.
In this sense, although loss prevention is not in my job description, as part of MCCO’s Walking with People in Poverty team, my role is to connect with those on the margins who are stealing out of necessity and redirect them to our community partners like Ray of Hope, where they can get gift cards to our store. I am also able to purchase items for individuals on a caseby-case basis when it is appropriate (e.g., if I have not spoken with them before and they are not familiar with how to get gift cards from our community partners).
When individuals are stealing out of greed or are hostile/aggressive and/or not willing to speak with me, I either issue them a trespass ban or let them know that one will be issued if they return.
Over the last nine months, I’ve spoken with around 300 individuals and issued only 15 bans. This means 95% of my interactions are positive, and around 5%
lead to bans. As I touched on earlier in this update, I believe this is a testament to the willingness of marginalized individuals to show respect and seek out support in appropriate ways when approached with compassion.
Engaging Volunteers
In late August, I spent a week speaking to some of you during your morning coffee break. Thank you to the 50 or so volunteers who took part in these discussions. One key learning for me was that many of those in attendance were unaware that I was part of MCCO’s Walking with People in Poverty team. Moreover, I sensed a lack of familiarity with the Walking with People in Poverty team in general. As such, I am happy to see that Giselle organized time for some of my Walking with People in Poverty peers to introduce themselves to you and answer your questions during the last week of September. I hope these conversations went well, and feel free to share with me anything you learned or would like to know more about!
Bridging MCCO and Thrift Stores
Finally, as you know, the business model of Thrift on Kent relies heavily on volunteers and a lean staff group. My role helps ensure that volunteers and staff can focus on their tasks without being burdened by the additional emotional labour of handling difficult interactions.
This compassionate approach not only aligns with MCC’s broader values but also benefits the store. Customers have responded positively to seeing the respectful treatment of marginalized individuals. Many have offered to pay for items or contribute in other ways, inspired by our initiative. By demonstrating a tangible commitment to local peacebuilding, this approach has fostered goodwill amongst our customers and contributed to the store’s success. In this context, the Community Safety and Outreach initiative helps bridge the gap between MCC’s mission and the day-to-day operations of its thrift stores.
Thank you for your continued support. Together, we are making a significant difference in both our global and local communities.
Stephen Soucie
Community Safety and Outreach Associate Walking with People in Poverty team
COVID Reminders
It seems more people are catching COVID again, so I wanted to remind you all of our policy here to keep us all healthy. Symptoms of COVID-19 and its variants range from mild—like the flu and other common respiratory infections—to severe. If you feel sick, it’s important that you stay home and talk with a primary care provider or doctor if necessary.
If you have the symptoms of COVID-19 listed below, assume that you may have the virus and may be contagious. You can also do this self-assessment:
Any one or more of:
• fever or chills
• cough
• shortness of breath
• decreased or loss of taste or smell Any two or more of:
• runny nose or nasal congestion
• headache
• extreme fatigue
• sore throat
• muscle aches or joint pain
• gastrointestinal symptoms (such as vomiting or diarrhea)
If you have symptoms of COVID-19, stay home and selfisolate until all of the following apply:
• your symptoms have been improving for at least 24 hours (or 48 hours if you had nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea)
• you do not have a fever
• you have not developed additional symptoms
Source: MCCO Respiratory Infections Policy
MCC Coffee Talks
By the time this newsletter comes out, we will have had MCC Coffee Talks with various members of the Walking with People in Poverty team – Noman, Alejandra, Greg and Katie.
We are hoping to continue this again in October with another department from MCC Ontario. Keep your eye on the breakroom TV screen for more info.
Christmas is coming
Christmas is a very busy time in our store! To help it run smoothly, we have hired two part-time seasonal retail staff. However, given the beautiful chaos of Christmas at TOK, we are also looking for help from volunteers in other ways.
Do you have a knack for displaying merchandise, and can you pick up some extra shifts? We are hoping to have two or three extra people per day who will be solely focused on Christmas merchandise. Stay tuned for details of our Christmas season launch event.
And until then, Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Halloween!
Training Active Bystanders Workshop
If you are a bystander witnessing a harmful situation, you have a choice to make. Learn how to interrupt harmdoing, generate positive actions by others and be more than a spectator through this important workshop.
It is not an expectation of MCC Ontario for volunteers to step into unsafe or risky situations while volunteering. Please always seek out staff should these types of situations arise. The TAB training is to give tools for and reflections about everyday life situations you may come across to feel more equipped to know what to do.
Workshop options:
ONLINE - Wednesday, November 6th – 10:00am - 12:30pm
To register either click HERE or contact Holly McClement –hollymcclement@mcco.ca for support.
IN- PERSON - Thursday, November 7th – 1:30pm - 4:00pm (Only for those in the KW area—there is an in-person TAB training happening at 50 Kent on the 2nd floor)
To register either click HERE or contact Holly McClement –hollymcclement@mcco.ca for support.
When you register, please use MCCVOLUNTEER in the payment section. This training is $25 for those who are not MCC staff or MCC volunteers. If you accidentally pay $25 for the training, please let me know and MCC will reimburse you.
Vicki Steele
John Tinholt
Joyce Reesor
Mary Lou Thompson
Noman Sajjad
Lily Huber
Niyat Dawit
Priyansh Panwar
Deborah Gibson
Mervin Richardson
Nigisti Tsegay
Helmut Jannert
Glenn Brubacher
Allie Libertini
A Journey of Covenant and Reconciliation
The following is a special story that is transforming one of the most foundational relationships in Canada—that between Indigenous Peoples and the Christian Church. Your work in MCC’s thrift shops is not only about the good work you do within the shops—you are also supporting important, “big-picture” work through MCC’s local programs, like Indigenous Neighbours.
Adrian Jacobs, a Christian and a member of the Turtle Clan, Cayuga Nation of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy, has been a friend of MCC’s since 2007. He had started a job with MCC educating the Mennonite churches on the history of the Haldimand Tract—six miles on either side of the Grand River that was granted to Six Nations back in 1784 by the British Crown as a thank you to Six Nations for supporting the British during the American Revolution. Over the decades and centuries, however, Canada broke their promise and sold that land that was no longer theirs to the point where now only 5% of the original Haldimand Tract is Six Nations’.
Adrian was having lunch with Rick Hill, an Elder and traditional Knowledge Keeper at Six Nations, when Rick asked a curious question: “Do the churches pay property taxes?”
To this, Adrian responded, “No, they don’t.” “That’s great,” said Rick. “Wouldn’t it be great if we had a spiritual covenant with the churches where they could acknowledge Six Nations jurisdiction over their church lands, they could pay a token lease payment—which was the original idea of leasing the land when we first got it in 1784—and they could continue their spiritual work and if they ever decommissioned, the land could revert back to Six Nations.”
The churches Adrian spoke with resonated with
Rick’s terminology of “spiritual covenant,” which resonated with both traditional Haudenosaunee and Christian spirituality—a living testament to respect, responsibility and harmonious coexistence.
Pam Albrecht, a member of Stirling Avenue
Mennonite Church where Adrian first presented the idea of spiritual covenant back in 2007, reflected on the growing desire for reconciliation within the church over the years: “A commitment to, and a desire to move forward with reconciliation was something that felt universal for those who participated in the process.”
They also grappled with the legacy of colonization, recognizing that their faith had been used to justify colonialism and the ongoing harm of colonial systems.
“My encouragement all the time to the churches [is], ‘you claim to be the conscience of the government,’” says Adrian. “Here’s your chance to lead the way! Here’s your chance to move forward with doing the right thing, and maybe the government will catch a drift that that’s possible, and maybe they should be doing that as well.”
In 2024, after years of dialogue, Stirling Avenue
Mennonite Church committed to ongoing token lease payments to Six Nations, a monumental step toward acknowledging historical injustices. Three Mennonite Churches in Manitoba, where Adrian had also worked for years in spreading the message of spiritual covenant, also recently committed to token lease payments to local Indigenous organizations.
In June 2024, Adrian, alongside MCC staff Scott Morton Ninomiya and Laurie Warkentin, organized a Strawberry Thanksgiving and Communion event— combining both Haudenosaunee thanksgiving ceremony and Christian communion. Over 150 people from various denominations and the Six Nations community gathered, reaffirming their commitment to justice and collaboration. “It’s what Rick talked about,” reflected Adrian. “Six Nations and the churches meeting together in a place of unity, a place of pursuit of justice, tangible action being taken and celebration.”
Listen to the full story on Undercurrents by clicking here
