The Christmas season is the busiest of the year at Good Samaritan Ministries, with an estimated 45 carloads of donations being received in the month leading up to the holiday. Earlier this week, GSM Executive Director Leesa Stephens took time to explain the process of where the donations go once they arrive.

“There are many people who regularly donate to Good Samaritan Ministries and they know they’re helping people but they’re not sure how their donations are helping” Stephens said. “It’s really interesting because every facet of the donation process, whether it’s food, clothing or monetary, they stay here to benefit people in Brown County. And I’m even amazed sometimes when I look at these numbers.”

The process for items that end up in the Resale Store begins at the Donation Center, which is located at 200 W. Chandler. A total of 859,485 pounds of non-food items were donated to GSM from January through November of this year.

“Every donation that comes through is sorted, touched and handled,” Stephens said. “Once everything has been touched and looked it, we move it from the Donation Center to the Resale Store where it’s ready to be grouped, priced and put out front. And every dollar generated in the Resale Store goes back into the operation of the hunger programs.”

While Stephens stated GSM would like to put all the donations to good use, that’s not always possible.

A total of 160,450 pounds of clothing has been recycled through Charity Shoes LLC in Dallas, which is an international relief organization that accepts all types of clothing. GSM also donates to Arms of Hope, which supports the Medina Children’s Home – a not-for-profit Christian Home network based out of Medina.

“They take our items like housewares, lamps, books, things we don’t have room for our in our Resale Store,” Stephens said. “Even if we can’t use them in our Resale Store, they’re doing good, we’re sending them on to the best place possible.”

This time of year, toys and other related items are more prevalent in the Resale Store.

“Here at the Christmas season we have some interesting donations,” Stephens said. “We have a family that for the last several years has donated bicycles in honor of their brother that passed away and to try and be fair with those we let people sign up and we’ll be giving away at least four brand new bicycles. That’s been going on a few years. Then this year, we have a family that’s donated toys in memory of a young man, Isaiah Mims, and what we’re doing in the month of December is if a family comes in and has children or grandchildren listed on their household file, they get to choose a toy for each of the family members.”

At the Food Pantry, items are being accepted through the food warehouse as GSM volunteers are working to prepare Christmas boxes for families in need, along with the Food for Thought program which provides sacks of food for chronically hungry students in Brown County schools.

“We’ve received 8,021 pounds of food donated just during the month of November,” Stephens said. ‘People donate food and not just at Christmas, they do it all the time. We share donations with other agencies in town like Pregnancy Care Center, Salvation Army, Corinne T. Smith Animal Center, the police department because we can’t always use it all in time. Some food donations are specific like our Food for Thought program.”

Monetary donations are also welcome, and the money contributed will be appropriated where needed or requested.

“If someone comes in with a special request, especially with financial donations since we are a 501c3, then it absolutely must go to where it is specifically designated,” Stephens said. “All monetary donations stay in Brown County to operate the hunger ministries. The only time we ever send money outside of Brown County is through the Empty Bowls event and we advertise very clearly that 10 percent of what comes in during that event will go toward support hunger operations.”

Stephens did offer a reminder that even though a person’s heart may be in the right place, some items GSM receives are past their point of usefulness.

“Do you ever throw anything away? Yes,” Stephens said. “We have a phrase here, donate the best and toss the rest. If it’s broken and you’re not using it, we’re not going to use it either. Last month we sent 1,500 pounds to the landfill because of broken things. If your item is in good working order, yes please donate it. But if it’s broken or missing pieces, please find a way to dispose of it because we won’t be able to use it.”