The Niverville MCC Thrift Shop has reached a remarkable milestone: it has been serving the community for 50 years.
After the first MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) Thrift Shop opened in Altona in 1972, a group of women from Niverville decided they could do the same thing for their community. By 1974, the Niverville location was open for business.
Five women from five different churches spearheaded the project—Kathy Dyck (Word of Life Mission Church), Sadie Friesen (Niverville Mennonite Church), Hedy Peters (Niverville Mennonite Brethren Church), Katherine Unger (Niverville Christian Mennonite Conference Church), and Frances Klassen (Elim Mennonite Church).
It should be noted that one of those founders, Katherine Unger, and her husband Abe are still regular volunteers at the store.
Over the years, the location of the store has changed multiple times, providing a kind of memory road of former businesses in town. The original thrift shop was at 226 Main Street, the building that currently houses Anya’s Hair studio.
The next year, the thrift store moved into a building which had previously been home to Neil Toews’s Grocery Store and was owned by Jake’s Electric. This building was located to the rear of what is now Chicken Chef.
In 1977, the shop moved to its third location, a former bakery on Main Street. The store was housed in this spot for six years, until it was time to move again.
In 1983, the original location of the thrift store came up for sale and the business moved back to its first home, this time as owners of the building. In 1991, after some renovations, Mayor Gil Wiebe presided over a grand opening of this new expanded version of the store.
In 1995, a second story was added to this building and the store remained at 226 Main Street for another 13 years after that.
In 2008, the former Keystone Hatchery right next door was purchased, renovated, and reconstructed into the MCC building currently in use. The grand opening for this location was held on April 19, 2008.
“The footprints of the store’s various locations have increased, as have the monthly financial donations to world missions,” says Geoff Townsend, an MCC Thrift Shop board member. “From its humble beginnings in 1974, the aim has been to serve the Niverville community and raise financial support for worldwide missions.”
The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is an Anabaptist Christian ministry. Their website states, “We are an international charity that shares God’s love and compassion for all by responding to urgent needs around the world and working for peace and justice.”
The business model is simple but has many moving parts. Anyone can donate their gently used items, from dishes to clothes to sporting goods. The Niverville shop then has its approximately 100 volunteers sort, clean, and price the items.
Profits are used for the upkeep of the store, the managers’ salaries, and any needed improvements or repairs. After funds are used to maintain the business, excess profit is donated to MCC Manitoba, which uses the funds to support relief, development, and peace work around the world. The store also contributes to multiple local non-profits.
MCC does charitable work in 45 countries on 393 projects with 1,108 workers. To date, they boast some impressive statistics, such as having provided training for 45,000 people in improving agriculture and animal production methods, providing direct clinical care to 38,000 people, giving educational supplies and MCC school kits to 66,000 children, improving water sources for 55,000 people, and providing 208,000 people with food assistance. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
“Our thanks go out to the members that have served on the board, the management teams over the years, as well as the many, many volunteers that made all of this possible over the last 50 years,” says Townsend. “Our hope and prayer is that many more people will take up the baton and work together for the future of your local MCC store, possibly seeing it grow even more in years to come!”
