After finding a building to accommodate the size of the current store in Souderton, Care and Share hopes to consolidate into one facility for a streamlined process.
The new location will be at 355 Maple Ave. in Harleysville.
According to Care and Share Executive Director Sarah Bergin, the move will allow Care and Share to run more effectively.
“The way we are set up now, we are five individual silos, and it requires a lot of people to run those silos,” Bergin said. “When we go to a department store model, we’re all going to be together. The idea is it’ll be a one-touch situation,” Bergin said.
Bergin said that the whole process has taken about six years, as they have been looking for the right location.
“We wanted to stay within a 6-10 mile radius of where we currently are,” Bergin said. “Lower Salford Township has been very supportive of Care and Share moving over there, and they’re excited to see us coming.”
For Care and Share Office Manager Madison Niness, the timeline has been one of the main challenges of the move.
“Even though it has moved really quickly overall, it certainly doesn’t always feel like it has moved quickly,” Niness said.
Bergin said it has been difficult to communicate with people involved with the store, “because we really don’t have a firm timeline to tell people.”
According to Niness, one goal of the move is for Care and Share to become self-sufficient.
“That’s the ultimate long-term goal,” Niness said, “is that we would own the part of the building that we reside in, and then we wouldn’t be paying a rent or a mortgage.”
Bergin said that another goal of the move is so the store can get back to giving to Mennonite Central Committee, the nonprofit they support, like they did in 2019, when they donated $1 million.
Interact co-advisor Jennifer Detwiler said that since the club volunteers at Care and Share on a weekly basis, they plan to assist in the store’s move.
“If they have a need and we could fill it, we definitely will,” Detwiler said.
For Interact co-advisor Alison Kircher, she said the club will help Care and Share with any job they need.
“Our group is committed to supporting the move because they’ve been so kind and generous to our students,” Kircher said.
Kircher said she’s also interested in possibly organizing a volunteer trip to help with the move, like the club does for the nonprofit organization Project Cure.
“With Care and Share being in Harleysville, hopefully we’ll be able to add more after school hours or more of those bigger events,” Kircher said.
Bergin said that they definitely plan to involve Interact students in the move, and that it might even be an opportunity for volunteers to see departments they never have before.
“The volunteer can still do the same job that they’ve always done, if they want to do the same job,” Bergin said.
Interact member Selena Zhang said she doesn’t see much changing from a volunteer standpoint.
“I think the only thing that will really change is how people go there and shop,” Zhang said.