This year, Steinbach MCC will be giving close to $20,000 away, and there will be several charities that will be the recipients of that. 

Dave Thiessen, who works at MCC thrift store in Steinbach, says their primary mission is to turn donated items into money in the till, so that they can donate their earnings to the charities of MCC’s projects. 

People think all of their earnings go overseas, but some of it actually stays here. 

“Basically our agreement with MCC is that we can give 2% of our annual sales to local projects and local charities.” 

They invite local charities to apply for that money every year. 

Steinbach MCC tries to donate about 30% of each purchase. They can’t donate 100% since they have to cover costs like property tax, hydro, and they also have some paid staff. 

Thiessen says MCC has gotten busier since COVID restrictions loosened up. 

"While the weather's been nice on a Tuesday morning, it's not unheard of to have over 100 people lined up at the back of the at the store entrance at 9:30am,” he says. “They come in the door and they all scatter in different directions and they know what they're looking for.” 

Since more customers have been coming to the store, they find themselves having staffing issues. 

They are always looking for more volunteers. 

"That ramping up of activity seems to be kind of outstripping the amount of volunteers that are coming out.” 

They used to have their clerks come in half a day once per week, and now these volunteers are coming in a lot more often than that. 

“Now we've got ladies there at the till that are there all day long and sometimes two or three times a week. So it's actually it's quite hard on them.” 

He says it would be great to be able to have more volunteers so people could still come on a regular basis, but just less often. 

If you want to volunteer, but not as a clerk, or if you want a more flexible schedule and are worried you’ll be too busy, Thiessen says there are all kinds of opportunities and they would love to work with you. 

“There's lots of little jobs for people to be able to contribute and give back. Give us a call, come in. We'll always figure out a way to make that work.”