Personal care items and cleaning products can have a great impact on the clients we serve. Though many of these items are essential, they can also be expensive and cannot be purchased with SNAP benefits.

Organizing a toiletry drive? Click here to see a list of much-appreciated personal care items, and email info@northamptonsurvival.org to get an up-to-date list of the items in highest demand at the time of your drive.

We accept donations of nonperishable food, personal care items, cleaning products, and reusable or paper grocery bags during donation hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12 PM – 3 PM.

Items Currently Accepted

Personal Care Items

Many of our clients lack basic necessities like soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and toilet paper. These items can be expensive and cannot be purchased with SNAP benefits. As most of our clients are housed individuals and families, full-sized products are preferred over travel-sizes. We gratefully accept new, un-used toiletries for distribution to clients.

Organizing a toiletry drive? Click here to see a list of much-appreciated personal care items, and email info@northamptonsurvival.org to get an up-to-date list of the items in highest demand at the time of your drive.

Bags

In compliance with the City of Northampton single-use plastic bag ban, the Northampton Survival Center no longer provides single-use plastic bags for groceries. Instead, we encourage clients to bring reusable cloth bags for packaging their groceries. We accept donations of clean, reusable cloth shopping bags, paper bags (folded and in good condition), or insulated bags to help our clients and the environment.

Cleaning Products

Since household cleaning products can be expensive and are ineligible for purchase with SNAP benefits, we accept donations of consumer-sized bathroom/kitchen cleansers, cleaning wipes, liquid dish soap, laundry detergent, and the like. We do not accept industrial-sized products or tools like mops, buckets, or brooms. For a list of cleaning products we accept, please click here.

Items Not Currently Accepted

Egg Cartons

The Center sometimes needs donations of egg cartons to repackage eggs for clients. As recently as February 2024, we are not accepting egg cartons.

Books

We do not accept donations of children’s books, cookbooks, or cooking magazines. Forbes Library maintains a Little Free Library for our clients; if you have new or gently use books to donate, please contact Forbes Library.

Other items

The Northampton Survival Center does not accept donations of clothing, furniture, books, or other non-food items aside from those specifically mentioned above. Other area nonprofits may be able to accept those kinds of donations.