Students shopped around in McGuire Hall during the Center for Community, Service, and Justice’s (CCSJ) bi-annual Forever-Green Thrift Store. The space was transformed to house several clothing racks full of a variety of tops, bottoms, shoes, and accessories that students could purchase for very low prices. While this might resemble an ordinary thrift store, what sets this one apart from others is that it focuses on sustainability and giving back to the Baltimore community.
The bi-annual thrift store was started in 2022 and has drawn in thousands of students over the years. CSSJ Sustainability Program Coordinator and current organizer of the Forever-Green Thrift Store Abigail Thornton ‘26 says that seeing a large student turnout each year is what helps motivate CSSJ to keep hosting the store.
Thornton shared what the process is like, starting from advertising and collecting clothing donations up until the day of the event.
“We start collecting our donations a couple weeks out. The Forever-Green team comes to sorting meetings and we sort through the clothes to decide what is suitable for us versus what we should donate to other shelters in the area. Then the week of we gather everything together to prepare for the day of the thrift store when we set everything up,” Thornton said.
All clothing donations come from Loyola students, and those that are not purchased by the end of the event are donated to local shelters in the area to help those in need. In addition to clothing donations, CCSJ also picks an organization to donate the proceeds generated from the thrift store sales. This time they picked the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which they partnered with earlier this year to plant the school’s first oyster farm.
“Earlier this year we got the chance to plant oysters in the Inner Harbor, so we will be going each month to clean the cages before springtime, when we will plant them on a sanctuary reef. This will help with water filtration in the Inner Harbor as well as its ecosystems in general,” said Thornton.
Abagail Johnson ‘29 and Amelie Heyer Pozos ’29 said they didn’t know what to expect when they first heard about the event but were pleasantly surprised at what the thrift store had to offer. Both girls found items that they liked and said they would be interested in coming to more of these events in the future.
Johnson felt even more incentivized to return because of the sustainability being practiced by CCSJ.
“It’s nice that all these clothes aren’t being thrown away afterwards and are gonna be reused. I’m a big fan of sustainability, so I really like this,” Johnson said.
Returning shopper Hanna Perez ’28 shared that she is a big fan of thrifting and loves to support her CCSJ co-workers by coming to the Forever-Green thrift stores. She says that each time she has gone she has had a great experience and has always been able to find clothes she loves for cheap prices. Perez plans on coming to future thrift store events and encourages other students to do the same.
“You should definitely come and check it out. You don’t even need to be here for that long, and the prices are very cheap. There are lots of really cute, cheap options and it’s very sustainable,” Perez said.
Information about the next Forever-Green Thrift Store will be released during the upcoming spring semester. Visit CCSJ’s website or Instagram profile to learn more about other upcoming events and opportunities to serve.