When the Ukrainian war started Maya was saving vulnerable Ukrainians from the basements of the war. When they were arriving to the UK most had very little clothing or items. Maya started asking (on Facebook) for donations of clothing for the arriving Ukrainians. When Maya managed to fill the essential needs of the arriving Ukrainians she had two full bags of clothing left over, as these were donations Maya wanted them to go to a worthy home and so set up a 1 meter long clothes rail with not even 20 items on it outside the community cafe with the note “All Free, just grab and go”. What happened next was unexpected, people started to not only take items but bring donations. People liked helping each other and admired the fact that no one was profiting from their items. In five days , one rail became three rails and in five months (now December) one rail had turned into twenty rails and not only that, the community cafe was full of donations like ; clothing, electrical items (which are PAT tested before going out), bric-a-brac, household items, crockery, kitchen utensils, toys, games and anything you can possibly think of that would be in someones house that they no longer need. Because this was unplanned and the growth happened organically , there was no space anymore in the community cafe to run the food bank or run the cafe. Maya was stressed and panicking, until one night in December at 3am Maya woke suddenly with the idea of opening a specialist shop nearby where everything donated would be available to those who need it for Free.
People around her were sceptical about the sustainability of the shop and tried to talk her out of such a crazy move. Even close friends questioned how she would pay the rent. But Maya followed her dream because she is convinced that when you do something for the right reasons and help people, money and success always follows!
The Free shop opened in December 2022. Maya met with a local Landlady who had an empty shop and had heard about the work Maya was doing for the community, Maya was honest with her and told her she had no idea how she was going to pay the rent but the kind landlady decided to give Maya a chance and agreed a discounted rent. A lease was agreed at 9pm, by 9am the following morning the shop was full of stock, open to the public and on the headlines of all news outlets. Today Maya’s Free Shop has 100s of people visiting every hour it is open (Monday – Saturday 9am – 3pm). We have only one rule and that is no re-selling of any items you find in the shop. Other than that you are welcome to take what you need and bring what you no longer need. The Free Shop has become a life line for people who have been effected by the cost of living crisis, escaping domestic abuse, suffering house fire or flood and other emergency or difficult life situations.
The number of donations that the free shop receives is 100s of bags a day which we have calculated saves 7,400 tonnes of CO2 per year. Textile donations which do not pass quality control are ‘ragged’ and sold in order to generate a monthly income to pay the rent.
If you have any unwanted items of clothing , kitchen items , small household items, bric-a-brac etc please feel free to bring it down to us. Blankets, tents, duvets etc are always good for the local homeless people and are gratefully received.
Larger items of furniture we can take at our furniture bank which helps to furnish the houses of people who have been housed with nothing. We are happy to accept large furniture items if we have sufficient space in the store, please call first to discuss – 01227 687 255
The free shop has been featured many times in both local and national news outlets. Maya has been described as a ‘Community Warrior’ , ‘trailblazer’ and ‘force of nature’. The first high street shop in the world with no till was born in Kent.
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/herne-bay/news/the-kent-shop-where-everything-is-free-281710/
https://www.communityad.co.uk/exclusives/mayas-community-support-centre-in-herne-bay/
https://www.communitycatalysts.co.uk/smallgoodstuff/directory/mayas-community-cic/
The free shop is an excellent place to volunteer, the team are hard working , receiving and sorting donations, tidying the shop and rotating stock on the shelves constantly. It is very rewarding and the team have a very close bond, Maya herself doesn’t call it a team , she refers to the volunteers as her family. If you are interested in volunteering please see our volunteers page (Click here to view it). What started as a clothes rail outside of the community cafe with the sign (Grab and Go) has turned into a thriving community resource spreading love and kindness to each other.
