On Friday, September 11th, from 2 to 6 PM, in the Atlantic HyVee parking lot, the Atlantic Lions will be collecting gently used or new shoes for the Soles4Souls program.
Soles4Souls exists to end wasted potential. By diverting new and used shoes from landfills, excess is turned into relief for those in crisis, opportunity for communities, confidence for kids, and a healthier planet for all. The focus is to create opportunity for people through shoes — keeping usable goods in play and helping people move forward in education, work, and life.
When entrepreneurs in low-income countries are equipped with donated shoes to sell, they are helped to create sustainable small businesses that lift families out of poverty and drive community growth.
Shoes are also provided to people facing hardship—from survivors of natural disasters to those rebuilding their lives after homelessness or domestic violence. These essentials help restore dignity and ease financial burdens, so people can focus on what’s next.
Soles4Souls receives shoe donations, reconditions them as needed, and then distributes them to provide relief and create jobs. The majority of Soles4Souls shoe donations come from retailers that provide shoes with defects or that weren’t selling well, but a large secondary source is donations from organizations and individuals across the United States.
Soles4Souls prefers items in good condition but even shoes in poor condition are recycled.
Through sorting, grading, re-commerce, repurposing, repairing, and responsible end of life solutions, the life of shoes is extended to maximize their impact while reducing environmental waste.
As of 2020, Soles4Souls has distributed 50 million pairs of shoes or items of clothing in 129 countries. As of 2010, about 55 percent of the shoes are distributed in the United States and 45 percent are distributed abroad. As of 2020, about 75% of the shoes are sold to other non-profits that operate micro-enterprise programs in developing countries. Those non-profits sell the shoes to small business owners, that sell them at local marketplaces in developing countries in order to support their family.
Soles4Souls was founded after a group of executives from the shoe industry donated shoes to survivors of a 2004 tsunami, then to survivors of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Soles4Souls non-profit was formed the following year. As of 2012, Soles4Souls had responded with crisis relief aid to more than 40 natural disasters worldwide. By 2015, donating shoes to entrepreneurship programs to support local economies in developing countries became the non-profit’s main focus.
Please be part of this uplifting program by donating your used shoes to the Atlantic Lions Clubs’ shoe donation drive on Friday, September 11th, from 2 to 6 p.m. in the HyVee grocery store parking lot.
