Episode 22: Making an Impact: Mercy Mall of Virginia

Isaac Wright: Well, listen, we have a really special episode on Wright Money Tips today. As we start going through here, the holiday season, a lot of us are always focused on ways to be able to help others give back. And before I introduce our guests today, I just want to step back here and also share the fact that we decided here at Financial Dynamics to get involved with a charity and outreach program. Mercy Mall is the charity that we’re going to talk about today and really has made an impact. It’s pretty interesting to see the level of poverty and the level of need that can be right in your backyard.
And so, we saw what they were doing, became a partner with them this year and already started doing some pretty impactful and some great things. And I want all of you to listen in today to our guest today, Mrs. Stacey Jones. Stacey, glad to have you here.
Stacey Jones: Thank you so much, Isaac, for having me. It’s a blessing.
Isaac Wright: Yeah, absolutely. I know you will be able to share so much about Mercy Mall. Really overall, just want everybody to have an opportunity if you feel like you’re inclined to be able to learn more about ways to give back here on a local level, this is going to be a great podcast today.
Stacey, if I can, before we even go into anything, as I did the introduction there about Mercy Mall, why don’t you share a little bit about what Mercy Mall is and how it all got started?
Stacey Jones: Mercy Mall is a free clothing, housewares and baby boutique for families that are overcoming the obstacles to stability. So, they’re going through crisis situations like homelessness, substance abuse, recovery, bedbug, and mold infestations. Sometimes they’re going into homelessness and they are in transition.
So, they’re moving into an extended stay motel and they need, resources or way to cook for their family in the hotel. So we are there to walk alongside them in this time of transition and we’re just glad that we have the privilege to be able to help our community in that way.
Isaac Wright: Mercy Mall’s been around now for how long?
Stacey Jones: I’m so excited cause we’re getting ready to celebrate our 10th birthday. So, we are adolescents now, I guess. We’ve been in the Virginia area, Midlothian-Chesterfield area for 10 years. But that’s not where it started. It started, it was a big vision in a little town of Arkansas of about 14,000 called Harrison, Arkansas. Some of you may know or have heard of it. It’s 30 miles south of Branson, Missouri. Our pastor there, thought of this vision to have a free boutique for anyone that needed anything, because people were coming into the church and saying, “We need food, we need clothing.”
And then of course there were no food banks in that area as well. So. Our family moved out here with my husband’s transfer. Well, actually, he left his job and started a different job out here and we said goodbye to Mercy Mall. We really did not know of the needs in this area, just like you spoke about, but this was 2011. And you remember what happened in 2008? So, I had read an article in the Chesterfield Observer saying that there were cherry wood cabinets with no food in them. People were upside down on their homes. They were upside down on their cars and people were scared and didn’t know what they were going to do to support their families.
And so that was just a little seed planted in my heart. And so, I got connected to some ministries and then a church. The church campus actually started out here and the couple that started it moved on and moved to North Carolina and we had to make a decision overnight, whether to keep Mercy Mall open or not. And it was thriving and growing. And so, we decided, let’s keep it open and see what God has for it. And it’s been amazing. It’s been an amazing journey.
Isaac Wright: Well, again what you said earlier, as far as being called and you kind of saw some of the things that were going on here in this area. Some of the programs and I wanted to make sure I got this straight today, because I had a lot of things, but I know we don’t have so much time, but I did want to bring this up. I think, you know, the growth of Mercy Mall and the fact of how many people have jumped on board rallying around the fact that it again, on the impactful level that they can see locally involved, maybe kind of talk a little bit here as we go through the holidays, what are some programs going on with Mercy Mall that you feel have really hit the ball pretty hard for people that need help?
Stacey Jones: So, our trademark program is our personal shopper experience. Over the pandemic, we are now packing and pre-packing and doing a curbside pickup for about 98% of our clients right now.
So, we do that all year and that serves about 200 individuals and families every month. As we are approaching the holidays, we have all our forms set for our adoptive family program, which is an amazing program because what it does is it’s helping the families in the worst situations at the worst time of the year. And so, when you multiply homelessness with winter weather and also, families that are entering crisis over the holidays, you’ve now got a triple whammy of stress and crisis. And so, the adoptive family program actually combines, or it connects, sponsorships with families experiencing crisis and provides even greater needs than what we can do all year long, because we capitalize on the giving, the giving spirit around Christmas time.
People kind of know where they’re sitting financially by October, November, and they have a little bit more to give and they want to make the holidays have more meaning. And so, we encourage families that are interested to sponsor a family over the holidays. We did 92 last year, so that’s 184 connections to make. That’s, 92 sponsor groups and 92 families. Did I get that math, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, it’s a lot of work, but it’s so worth it. It will provide beds, cleaning supplies, of course all the things we normally provide, housewares, clothing, winter wear, space heaters, food, that kind of thing.
Isaac Wright: So just as a side note, when I came to visit, Mercy Mall and the location, and for those of you who are familiar with the Chesterfield area, it’s by the Chesterfield airport. I was really impressed when I walked in. If anybody ever goes into Mercy Mall, and I walked in and saw the cleanliness, but more importantly, the organization that goes along with it. If somebody’s, financially having a hard time and they want to go in and shop for clothes and things that you’ve mentioned, I feel like when they walk in that it’s not like a hand-me-down type of situation. It looks like a legitimate way to go in and shop. So, you know, again, just small things that matter I think for people’s self-esteem, people’s pride. Just wanted to share that as a takeaway from when I came and looked at how things were being run earlier this year.
Because again, the way that things are set up right now and again, going into the holidays for the various programs, to get involved in a situation like Mercy Mall, where somebody does want to make an impact on a local level. And again, there’s easy way to give: you can give financially, you can obviously, give time too. I know you guys look for volunteer opportunities from time to time as well. I kind of want to also just say that as we go through the holidays and into 2022, anything that you want to share about Mercy Mall, as far as things that you want to have? You know, let’s call it our listeners and viewers to really know about some things that you’re doing that are, let’s call it, unique to Mercy Mall.
Stacey Jones: Well, I smile big on that one because we also have a big dream and a vision, and that is to be able to meet people where they are. The number one obstacle for people receiving services for Mercy Mall is transportation.
We’ve got some funds earmarked for a box truck to be able to bring things out to the community where they reside. So, today that looks like in Henrico County. We’ve partnered with some McKinney-Vento advocates out there and McKinney-Vento are the homeless children. And so, we partnered with them and we pre-pack and take orders out to them. They drive through and pick up. We are very limited on what we can do without a box truck. Like I said, we’ve got some funds earmarked for that, but it’s going to take time. I just got a quote of 40,000 from Sheehy, who’s looking for a box truck for us, and that is above the budget that’s been approved by the board. And so, we’ll know when the timing’s right. When it does, we are so ready to bring items out to Richmond, out to Ettrick.
Isaac Wright: So let me just say this. So, because maybe things that we take for granted, a lot of people that need help may not have a car. They’re not barring walking five or 10 miles to get to where you’re at there. And you’ve told me that you’ve had people that have literally walked five, 10 miles, one way to do shopping, pick up their stuff, get groceries and walk home. And they’re the most humble people. You know, I didn’t grow up with a lot of money. So, to me, I think, you know, kind of keeping that humility, but more importantly, a lot of these people really are great folks. They just have hard times, hard situations. I think another program and we’re spit balling here a little bit, but I think another program that you guys have that I want to say something about that we decided to kind of come in and support was people coming out of prison.
Immediately, you know, they come out, they get a standard issued outfit. I mean, it’s very bland. It’s very, you’re another number. Why don’t you share a little bit about what you all have done there, because I don’t want to take any fire away from this. It really hit home with me.
Stacey Jones: I just get, I always get pumped up and anytime we give a tour, like just having you and Andrea in there was awesome. And anytime we get people to come in and I just encourage anyone that wants to come take a tour, to just email us through the website at info@mercymallva.org.
So, our Cases of Hope Program was given to us by some ladies that were running the same type of ministry that was called Threads of Promise. They had done it for 27 years and they said, “We’re partnered with Unit 13 on Courthouse Road. You’re familiar with that. And we said, “You know what? This is right down our alley.”
We’re doing all these things. We’re just not packing into a suitcase and dropping it off at the guard gate, which is how we run that actual prison drop-off. Since then, we have partnered with four more prisons and programs of inmates coming out of either jails, programs or prisons. And so how that looks is basically we take the excellence of our boutique shopping experience and we pack it into a suitcase and we put everything in there we think they could possibly need to get on a bus or get in a car with a loved one and say, “My loved one doesn’t have to carry this burden. I now have clothing. I have hygiene items. I have an adult coloring book to participate in something mindful on the way to where I’m going. I have a Bible. I have a handwritten note that has my name on it because I matter to someone.” And it’s a fresh start. They’ve served their time and you know, we just want to bless them with something so practical like that because that’s how we communicate love to them.
Isaac Wright: Awesome. I know, I love it. It just feels, I mean, that’s a big impression to make an immediate, self-esteem boost coming out of a tough situation. Stacey, I know we could talk for hours on Mercy Mall. But if you want to learn about Mercy Mall, we’re going to have that information both on our site and here at the bottom of the screen just to learn a little bit about maybe something that you can get involved in that could be helpful.
Stacey, I can’t thank you enough for coming in and I’ve asked you for a bit. This was a perfect time and I think going into the holidays, I’m just really excited to see how the growth of Mercy Mall continues.
Stacey Jones: Thank you, Isaac, and thank you so much for partnering with us.
Isaac Wright: We’ve really enjoyed the partnership and we’re happy to do it. So, for all of you today, I want to say thank you. Appreciate you tuning in, especially on today’s episode and we look forward to talking to you soon.
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