A community meeting organised by independent senator David Pocock got quite passionate this afternoon, as staff and members of the community gathered to discuss the handover of The Green Shed to St Vincent De Paul. The change was announced recently as a result of an ACT tender process and has caused quite a stir in the community.
The proprietors of The Green Shed have spent 13 years building up the enterprise, proving that a tip shop can be a profitable business, successfully reducing landfill, providing a service to Canberra and supporting a range of community groups along the way. The Green Shed has provided over $2 million dollars in charitable donations over the years in addition to the free goods they donate to those in need to in the community.
Genevieve Jacobs, who Canberrans came to love at the ABC, but is now Group Editor for Region Media, which includes Canberra’s own, the Riot Act, recently penned a piece describing The Green Shed as “a reliable source of all sorts of odds and ends that delight the hearts of collectors and scavengers alike.”
What Jacobs entirely fails to realise is that The Green Shed has in fact provided a valuable, democratic goods outlet to Canberrans living on and below the poverty line for over a decade. Many of those people do not feel safe asking for help from a religious organisation, having experienced trauma in their past. Even for those who haven’t suffered so, accessing support from St Vincent de Paul is actually very difficult.
The Canberra Times opted to edit out the questions and comments posed at the meeting from customers of The Green Shed who have not been able to access Vinnies services, community groups who are concerned about the concentration of service provision by these major charitable groups, and failings of the model of service provision by Vinnies. The comment section on the Riot Act Facebook page includes many articulate replies providing case studies of these issues.
For example, Amanda Ralph writes:
“For me, The Green Shed has been a lifeline over the past 2 years since fleeing family violence. I’m not here to bash the work of SVDP, but there is significant loss to be had by the tender being awarded to them.
The free clothing, linen, towels and soft furnishings etc available via the Green Shed is essential for people at the very bottom who have been priced out of charity op-shops such as SVDP and Salvos.
I have personally reached out to the crisis line of Vinnies, and I did receive a bag of food, a $30 fuel gift card, a foodbank voucher and a $10 Vinnies store voucher.
That $10 went on a pair of pants ($6) and a long-sleeved top ($4) for my son. Not quite a winter wardrobe for us both.
Even if Vinnies intend to reduce landfill and operate in a similar fashion to the Green Shed, their fundraising via retail clothing stores will absolutely impact the availability and quality of clothing and shoes for free.
When you are in the midst of a deep financial struggle, you already feel worthless and ashamed. Even if they maintain “free” baskets, it will be AFTER items have been rejected from the retail sales piles.
The Green Shed staff have always had such empathy and compassion. I have just moved home for the second time since fleeing – this time into a house rather than the tiny shoebox previously.
Being able to fill a trolley with odds and ends, from shelving to doorstoppers, and a very worn but amazingly comfortable reading chair, and be told $30, when even Kmart quality items would have been $250 is just irreplaceable.
I do understand the intention to serve the community in bigger ways, and use the money raised via “tip shop” avenues to fund more community programs – it’s a great idea.
But core essential functions, like free clothing and blankets as we head into winter will be lost, from those struggling at the very very bottom….
There was a certain dignity afforded by not having to admit “I can’t afford to pay for that”…”
When community leader, known for running the inner north community street pantries and Ainslie Buy Nothing Group, Amy Blain asked Jones about Vinnies aims in tendering for The Green Shed, he confirmed it was because they wanted to be able to use the profits from the recycling process to support the community through Vinnies exclusive programming. The St Vincent de Paul constitution prevents the donation of cash in the same way the previous proprietors had supported other community groups.
Paul and Margaret McGrath, who operate the Ngunnawal Street Pantry, reiterated concerns about the model where Vinnies make a profit from their stores to cover costs for programs, which fail to meet the needs of the community in a range of different ways, especially in times of increasing cost of living pressures.
Margaret Kitchin from ACT NoWaste has said the decision to award the tender to St Vincent de Paul was not a financial one. But she has said Vinnies experience with stores across Canberra factored into the decision, as did the tender’s plan to include education programs and upcycling classes.
Given the community concern about what sort of experience Vinnies other Canberra stores provide, this decision does not seem to be in the best interests of Canberrans. In addition to the earlier concerns about pricing lower socioeconomic community members out of the op shop market, there are a significant number of donations that Vinnies do not accept at their stores that volunteers have told this author are thrown in the rubbish. Furthermore, contrary to policy and community trends, Vinnies have recently introduced branded plastic bags for store purchases, when they could simply be reusing donated bags.
The Canberra Environment Centre has been running recycling education, upcycling, repair and other practical, hands-on environmental workshops for years. When they were forced to move out of their Acton premises over twelve months ago, they and their supporters went all over town for support and a new location. But the ACT Government failed to come to the party. Nonetheless, the Canberra Environment Centre lives on at Gungaderra Homestead in Harrison. Any decisions, financial or otherwise relating to community environmental education in Canberra should have included them, rather than continuing to expand the ever-increasing monopoly St Vincent de Paul have in the community sector.
It was good of Phillip Jones, local Director of Communications for Vinnies to stand up at the community meeting today. But he isn’t an executive. All he could offer was intentions and communications.
The proud and articulate staff from The Green Shed were organised and communicated their disappointment and concerns well. As one of the team leaders said, it seems counterintuitive for Vinnies to be talking about wanting to “support the community” while at the same time, The Green Shed team, many of whom live with multiple disabilities are now facing homelessness and have spent the last week choosing between rent and food. They work well as a team and made the commitment today to negotiate, with the already agreed support of the unions, for a unique enterprise agreement with Vinnies for the staff who would transfer across under the new administration. What they have experienced so far has been undignified and unfair.
From what they said at the meeting, it seems staff were supposed to have even been included in consultations about the policy ahead of the tender process, let alone the tendering itself. While I don’t believe this change is valuable, if it was to come, the change management has been handled very poorly indeed.
It is important the media coverage at least, holds St Vincent de Paul to what was said today, even if the ACT Government won’t investigate and remedy the decision and process that has been poorly undertaken and concluded. Given the outrage within the community, and the upcoming election, I do believe an inquiry would be in order.
ISHO (ĭsh'ōō) 