We’re excited that this year Furniture Mine is 30 years old.
Now called ‘Emmaus Furniture Mine’, it has grown to become the largest furniture and household charity shop in North Staffordshire with over 17,000 sqft shop and warehouse over two floors and located on the southern edge of Stoke-on-Trent city centre.
More than just a shop – helping those in need
The charity was registered in January 1991 by a group of local people aiming to provide quality affordable furniture to those with no ability to pay. Since then, Furniture Mine has helped an incredible 60,000 local people, with over 480,000 items of furniture and white goods provided to those who needed it most. A massive 20,000 tonnes of furniture & household goods have been reused instead of going to landfill.
Whilst many local charities have charity shops with furniture, no other local charity operates a ‘referrals’ system as we do. As well as serving customers on our shop floor as normal, we partner with housing associations, supplying furniture and white goods to those referred to us who are setting up home, at no cost to the tenants aside from a small delivery fee. We process over 800 referrals for individuals and families every year, supplying several thousand items of furniture.
Emmaus Furniture Mine’s stock made up of quality second-hand items that are no longer wanted by local people and so are donated to the charity. We usually offer a free collection service for large items from homes and businesses, or people can drop off in store. Please note that whilst Furniture Mine is closed during lockdown and our collections service also paused for now, we can still offer appointments to drop off your unwanted items at Emmaus Furniture Mine.
Furniture Mine has been through a lot of changes since it started, so we’ll be sharing snippets from it’s history and speaking to local people who have been involved through the decades.
Furniture Mine memories
Emmaus North Staffs is proud to present a series of special reports to celebrate Furniture Mine‘s 30th Anniversary.
We spoke to Rikki Twigg, who was there right at the beginning: the first Chair of the group which started it all. We also chatted to Margaret Riley, who helped to set up the charity.
Watch this space for more memories and updates about our celebrations.
Have you been helped by Furniture Mine?
We’d love to hear about your experience. Please get in touch via our Facebook page or email [email protected] – thanks so much.