By John Haag
Lincoln Warehouse Manager,
Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska
Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska (CSS) has been, and hopes to continue to be, blessed with very generous donations across 24,000 square miles of southern Nebraska. One of the most-asked questions is, “What happens to the items I donate?” Well, dear readers, that is an excellent question! So together let’s tackle that question and more, and hopefully gain a better understanding of CSS’s role in showing dignity to all we encounter while providing “Hope in the Good Life.”
Let us start with, “where can we donate?” The easiest answer is the CSS Thrift Stores: St. Louise Gift and Thrift in Lincoln (SLGT), St. Joseph Gift and Thrift (SJGT) in Hastings, St. Isidore Gift and Thrift (SIGT) in Imperial and St. Francis Gift and Thrift (SFGT) in Auburn.
In addition to CSS’s outstanding thrift stores, we have also provided donation trailers at various locations in Lincoln, Ceresco, Wahoo and Nebraska City. The Lincoln trailers are located at St. John the Apostle and North American Martyrs parishes. The Ceresco trailer is located on the west side of Hwy 77 at the Ceresco Public Park. The Wahoo trailer is located on 2nd Street, a block west of St. Wenceslaus Parish.
The Nebraska City trailer is located at St. Mary Parish. CSS, in partnership with the ECHO Collective, has a clothing donation bin located at the Turbine Flats in Lincoln. To view a full listing of locations and directions, visit our website.
Now that answers the “where to donate” question, but we haven’t tackled our original question yet! We are almost there. To answer that question, we will focus on the donation sorting process in Lincoln.
Donations from SLGT, St. John, North American Martyrs, Wahoo, Ceresco and Echo Collective go to the CSS warehouse located at 1300 N. 14th St in Lincoln. The sustainability warehouse crew, along with our excellent volunteers, sort all donations. CSS sorts the donations according to two broad programs: thrift store/eCommerce and recycling/trash. The CSS sustainability team uses the method of Regift, Resell, Recycle.
Starting with Regift, an example of that would be winter coats. Leading up to and during winter, our excellent CSS volunteers will pull out coats from the donated clothes. Some of these coats will be freely given out to those in need.
Some coats will also fall under “Resell.” They will be resold via SLGT or eCommerce. Funds from resold items are used to assist clients and families needing financial assistance, for example, with rent, utilities and medical bills.
As for the Recycle option, those coats that have had a great life but probably don’t have another season in them will be recycled. The goal of this method Regift, Resell, Recycle is to limit the amount of trash in the landfill. So let’s talk some numbers!
For the calendar year 2024, the CSS warehouse crew added 29,881 lbs. to the landfill from donated items. Wow, you may say. That is almost ¾ of a semi-trailer load added to the landfill. How does that jive with Regift, Resell, Recycle? 8.94% is how that jives. That is the percentage of trash by weight (the 29,881 lbs.) vs. the percentage of items that were diverted to Regift, Resell, and Recycle by weight. That means the warehouse crew and the excellent volunteers processed 91.06%—just over eight semi-trailer loads—of donated goods to go toward supporting CSS clients and programs.
CSS will reach its 100-year anniversary in 2032, and has a goal to be able to provide “Hope in the Good Life” for another 100-plus years, by sustaining operations that align with the region’s needs and growth. We welcome your support by continuing to donate your items at the locations listed on the webpage that will be Regifted, Resold, or Recycled. Thank you to all our incredible donors, volunteers, staff, customers, and more who make this possible!
