Donations of Clothes Off in Holiday Season

Holiday clothing donations declined sharply at Goodwill and Salvation Army centers, a situation that may force one charity to lay off many of its 120 disabled or disadvantaged workers.

“We have never been this low in clothes,” Judy McNulty, development director at the Goodwill Industries of Southern Los Angeles County, said Wednesday. “Usually at the end of the year, our dock at our plant is full to the rafters and we can’t even get in there. At this point, we have nothing.

“We normally send 18-20 racks of clothing a day to our stores, but now we are shipping three. If they don’t have anything to do sorting and getting the clothing out to our stores, the disabled and disadvantaged people in our production department will have to go home.”

McNulty’s office supervises 10 Goodwill stores in Bellflower, Long Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance and Lomita. Officials said donations also were down at stores elsewhere.

“We have noticed a decline over previous Decembers, however it is not so drastic that we are faced with laying people off--at least not yet,” said Dan Mulcahy, community relations vice president for Goodwill Industries of Southern California, which employs 875 workers in job training positions in the major part of Los Angeles County, as well as in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

“The concern is that December is a traditionally heavy month, and January and February are traditionally low,” Mulcahy added. “We’re concerned that because December was not as heavy as previous years, it may not be able to carry us as far.”

The Salvation Army and the St. Vincent De Paul Society of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles also have seen clothing donations dip this holiday season, reported Maj. Don Mowery of the army and Jose Rossier of the society.

What has caused the donations to drop off? “I think there’s been some competition for donations, particularly with the earthquake in Armenia,” a tragedy to which Los Angeles residents responded generously, Mulcahy said.

He added that the recent cold, rainy weather may be discouraging donors, who “just don’t have incentive to put some clothes in the car and ride over to the donation center in the rain.”