At Merchology, people come first. The merch we create is about making connections with others, showing them they are important to you. Giving gifts to others is an awesome privilege, and for us, gift-giving takes many other forms beyond thoughtful merchandise. We love giving our time, energy, and help to those who need it.
To celebrate our 10-year anniversary, we’ll be highlighting one of our non-profit partners each month, starting now, in our birthday month of March! This month, we’re talking about Mission Central, our friends in PA! This is an amazing organization that helps people who are living through disasters.
About Mission Central
Mission Central has been impacting the community and the world beyond since 2002. The nonprofit's main function is to provide much-needed supplies to organizations doing humanitarian work both locally in PA and in countries around the world. Mission Central focuses specifically on providing supplies for disaster relief around the world, specifically for natural disasters and weather events.
Let’s dive into the impact Mission Central has had in a single year. In 2022, Mission Central provided $20.4 million in resources, impacting more than 6 million people. This includes $500,000 which was sent to provide relief in Ukraine, $2.3 million in medical supplies donated globally, and nearly $400,000 which helped provide pet food for animals in need. More than 220,000 students and their families were given much-needed resources, and over 3 million diapers were donated to struggling families. More than $6 million in food supplies were provided through Mission Central’s PA warehouse. These are just a few of the organization’s accomplishments over the year, which was packed with meaningful contributions that really affected those experiencing difficult times.
Mission Central Outreach Programs
Mission Central has wonderful programs to help people locally and globally. MC’s kit-building program provides specially curated packs of essentials for different need states, including maternity kits, hygiene kits, children’s activity kits, and more.
Mission Central has a strong medical program, which was open every day throughout the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns providing necessary PPE and facemasks to schools and frontline workers. On average, the medical program provides $2.4 million in medical resources per year.
The organization’s shoe program sources donated shoes which are distributed across the world to people in need living in Haiti and Honduras as well as countries in Central America and Africa.
Additionally, Mission Central provides furniture and other home essentials to those who need help setting up their new apartments, including those who have just left prison or the military.
Merchology Volunteers with Mission Central
Our team located in PA has had the amazing opportunity to work with Mission Central! In March of 2023, members of the PA team took the time to create Disaster Relief Buckets that would be sent to people in Kentucky and Turkey. The PA team also helped sort donated shoes to make the process of matching shoes to people in need much easier. The shoes our PA team sorted were sent to Ghana and Turkey. The Merchology team had an amazing experience with Mission Central, and everyone involved was grateful for the opportunity to make a real impact on people around the world.
The PA Team will be visiting Mission Central again this month to create more disaster relief buckets and help sort donations for easy distrubution!
Want to learn more about custom gear for volunteer events? Contact us at Merchology today, and we can connect you with the printed tees, branded drinkware, and custom bags you need to make your volunteer event a huge success!