FLY@UP Thrift shop

Lara Oosthuizen

On 25 April, FLY@UP held its third annual thrift shop at the piazza on UP’s Hatfield campus.

What is FLY@UP, and how did the initiative start?

FLY@UP is an academic support programme at the university, but it strives to holistically support students beyond just academics, hence the Thrift Store Day initiative. According to FLY@UP coordinator Tayla Jonker, the decision to start the thrift shop came after the programme’s Instagram page received “a lot of DMs about students who didn’t have clothing, and they were writing exams, and they were cold”.

In order to help students in need, FLY@UP has three boxes for the donation of clothing that are permanently placed on campus in the Administration, DSA and IT buildings. In the weeks preceding this year’s thrifting event, FLY@UP strategically placed seven new donation boxes near the Piazza, Steers, Merensky, the SSC building and the Prospect, Landon and Duxbury gates. This was to help address this year’s increased need for support. Jonker indicated that this donation and thrifting project is an ongoing initiative which takes place twice a year during the periods leading up to exams.

How it works

Twenty-five people can enter the pop-up shop at a time and have eight minutes to thrift for five free items of clothing. Once a group has concluded their thrifting, they are required to exit and make way for the next group of thrifters. The shop is open to all students as well as staff members at the university.