From closets to community

(Photos by Jacob Wiegand | jacobwiegand@archstl.org) Annette Burgin of Lemay, right, looked at clothes with her mother, Leanna Rigdon of Mehlville, on Jan. 27 at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store on Lemay Ferry Road in south St. Louis County.

Catholic-connected thrift stores promote generosity and intentional stewardship of material goods

Laura Kosta

Submitted on January 30, 2026

For about 20 hours each week, Lynn Boyd can be found in her happy place among the racks at Twice Blessed Resale Shop.

Boyd, who lives near the shop in the Dutchtown neighborhood of south St. Louis, started as a shopper looking for quality clothing at low prices. When she learned that the shop’s proceeds support Our Lady’s Inn maternity homes, which house and support pregnant women and children, she was moved by the mission and began volunteering at Twice Blessed, too.

“Everything I own is thrifted,” she said, indicating her rainbow tie-dye pants, “so I understand where it comes from, and to find the right product for the right person — oh, that makes me so happy. That’s the fun — figuring out what they like and matching it up to what they want.”

Renee Lane and Joe Santoyo looked at a cup for sale Jan. 27 at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store on Lemay Ferry Road in South St. Louis County.

Twice Blessed is one of several Catholic-connected resale shops and thrift stores in the Archdiocese of St. Louis that support people in need in various ways. As many people spend time decluttering their closets and wardrobes in the first weeks of the year, these stores offer a way to ensure donations make a difference.

Store manager Lucy Hannegan, who attends St. Roch Church at Christ the King Parish, started Twice Blessed 16 years ago to benefit Our Lady’s Inn. The boutique-style resale shop carries women’s and children’s (including babies’) clothing, shoes, purses, jewelry, baby items and small home decor.

In addition to the shop’s proceeds, it has at times provided job training for Our Lady’s Inn clients who gain experience working there. Clients can shop the store if the in-house clothing room doesn’t have what they need, Hannegan said.

“Whenever I meet someone for the first time, I say, ‘your money is benefiting a homeless shelter for pregnant women,’” she said. “We are kind of the face of Our Lady’s Inn in the neighborhood.”

Fifty miles west, Mary Martha Thrift Store has been serving the Wentzville area for more than 50 years, offering clothing for all ages, household items, books, toys, holiday items, baby gear and more.

The store is supported by a coalition of seven area congregations, including Immaculate Conception Parish in Dardenne Prairie and St. Patrick Parish in Wentzville. The congregations take turns running the store, a week at a time — processing donations, pricing and shelving items and staffing the store during open hours.

Jessie Cervantes showed a fish-themed flip-flop to another shopper Jan. 27 at a St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store.

Proceeds from the store are divided among about 30 charities, said Mary Crooks, a parishioner at Immaculate Conception and the organization’s president. Recipients include St. Vincent de Paul conferences, Birthright, the Salvation Army, Meals on Wheels and numerous food pantries, as well as a fund for unexpected charitable needs that arise during the year.

The organizations that benefit from the thrift store proceeds also participate in a “grant program,” where the organization can offer a voucher to the family they serve to come shop in the store at no cost, Crooks said.

“All of the churches and all the organizations we give to, when people go to them, they can write a grant,” Crooks said. “Then they can bring it in, and what they get depends on how many people are in their family. If it’s one person, they get a bag of clothes. If it’s five kids and a mom, they get five bags for the kids and one for the mom. And we also don’t care if they pick up a pair of shoes. And if they need a coat, we’ll give them a coat. We’re definitely there for that.”

The variety of items — and eight different locations — of St. Vincent de Paul Society Archdiocesan Council of St. Louis thrift stores have long made them a popular destination for bargain hunters.

The society’s thrift stores benefit neighbors in need in a couple ways: first, through vouchers, distributed on home visits by parish Vincentians, that allow recipients to shop the stores for a new bed and donated items like clothing and furniture. Proceeds from the store (after operating costs) also go toward the society’s programs in the archdiocese.

The Vincentian mission starts before that, though, with the generosity of donors who pass on their items to benefit someone who could use it more, director of stores Mary Russel said.

“We really strive to ensure that we bring value to every donation that we receive at the back door, because we know that each one of those donations has a personal story to it,” Russel said.

K.J. Jackson looked at a book while shopping with his parents, Korina and Jessie Cervantes, on Jan. 27 at a St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store.

Words attributed to St. Basil the Great offer a challenge: “The coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.”

In that spirit, Russel encourages donors to give quality items, not junk. “Ask yourself: Is this something I would give my best friend?” she said.

(When the stores receive donated items that aren’t fit to sell, St. Vincent de Paul — and Twice Blessed and Mary Martha — work with a number of recycling vendors to keep as much as possible out of the landfill.)

St. Vincent de Paul store employees are part of the mission, too. Employees are paid, not volunteers, and at a competitive pay rate. Many have received assistance from the society themselves, and they in turn look out for their customers. Director of Vincentian Services and interim Executive Director Julie Komanetsky recalled a time when she was shopping at a thrift store and witnessed a cashier offer a warm winter hat to a woman who appeared to be unhoused. Another employee noticed a tear in the woman’s pants and immediately took her aside to find her a new pair in her size.

Besides the service it provides to neighbors in need, “Our stores are a place where all people can shop, and it gives an opportunity for the community surrounding the thrift store to benefit from the goods that come in who maybe can’t afford to shop new all of the time,” Komanetsky said. “…And the Gen Zs and the millennials, they’re really looking at the sustainability piece and impact on environment, and it gives them a place where they can go and purchase those items that we have really honored and taken care of and put forth for folks to purchase.”

Thrift shopping is a different undertaking than shopping at a “regular” store, Russel said. Her best tips are to shop often, since inventory changes quickly; have patience; and have fun hunting for treasures.

“If you see it, grab it; and if you want it, keeping coming back and looking with us, because it will eventually turn up,” she said.

St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store employees Lisa Kempf and Anna Reid assisted customers with their purchase on Jan. 27 at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store on Lemay Ferry Road.

St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Stores

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul Archdicoesan Council of St. Louis operates eight thrift stores in the St. Louis area, in Ballwin, Creve Coeur, Fenton, Florissant, Lemay, south St. Louis (Christy outlet), St. Ann and St. Charles.

For store addresses, shopping and donation hours, and information about what and how to donate, visit svdpstlouis.org/stores.

Shop St. Vincent de Paul’s eBay store at ebay.com/str/svdpstl.