Cradles to Crayons lends a helping hand during giving season

Friday, December 13, 2024 5:19PM ET
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Cradles to Crayons in Philadelphia is gearing up for giving season and beyond, helping to fight clothing insecurity.

Among the piles of children's clothing, Michal Smith executive director of Cradles to Crayons

"We supply 3 million diapers annually to kids in need, about 20,000 coats, about 15,000 sets of hats and gloves and probably about 15,000 pairs of boots and shoes," says Smith.

"It'll probably be out within the community within 3 to 5 days," Barnes Giles started as a volunteer and now works at Cradles to Crayons part time. While studying at Temple University.

"It's a three step process, the clothing comes in. It goes to the sorting section where we sort them and then it goes to the sizing section where we quality check," said Giles. "They come here into our outfit section where they make outfit packs for the kids, which is about a weeks worth of clothes."



It's a massive operation aided by donations of gently used clothing, there are donation bins all over like at the YMCA.

"People donate various items and we have a big bin," says Joseph Tine of the Haverford YMCA. "All this stuff isn't going very far, yeah. It's staying within our community."

With each pack of clothing comes a sense of pride.

"Quality equals dignity as far as we are concerned every item that comes here gets sorted about four times before it gets to an outfit pack," says Michal Smith.

This season of giving is a great time to donate but donations get slow after the holidays, while the need remains the same. Year-round action, in the fight against clothing insecurity is what Cradles to Crayons is all about.



For more information visit cradlestocrayons.org.
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