A pop-up street store gave Gainesville’s homeless community a unique shopping experience on Sunday.
This year’s frank gathering — a Gainesville-based conference for people who use communications to drive social change — hosted The Street Store, which provided homeless people a space in the chapel of Grace Marketplace full of donated items from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The event actually ended at 1:30 p.m.
However, because few people came after the initial morning rush. The remaining clothes were left as donations.
Members of UF’s Alpha PRoductions, a student-run firm under the Public Relations Student Society of America, set up and volunteered in partnership with Grace Marketplace and the Alachua County Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry.
Elizabeth Boone, a volunteer with Alpha PRoductions and a UF public relations and theater senior, said people were eager for their help.
“They could choose what they wanted from all the things instead of having it just given to them directly because they might not need it, or it might not fit,” Boone, 22, said.
Taylor Christie, a member of Alpha PRoductions who spearheaded the project, said people immediately took blankets, sleeping bags and mats.
The socks and shoes were among the first to go, too.
Although it was short notice, Christie, a 21-year-old UF public relations senior, said there was a good turnout.
She said the event highlighted the issues of homelessness and poverty in the city.
“It’s just nice being able to take the time to give back when it’s really so easy to do so,” Christie said.
“It’s literally just taking clothes people were going to throw away in the first place and giving it to people who are actually going to use it and care about it.”
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 3/23/2015 under the headline “Pop-up store gives Gainesville homeless clothing options"]
