With spring cleaning afoot, Scott and Crystal Kaufman say it's the perfect time to clean out some closet space and help them achieve their next humanitarian endeavour.
For the past several years, the Kaufmans, the married ownership team at BioPed Footcare & Orthotics in North Bay have spent their winter vacations in exotic locations in the Caribbean and Central America. Only, these trips were not your typical holidays.
The support of the community has kickstarted the couple's participation in Soles4Souls, volleying the local franchise to the top of the company's national rankings, with over 40,000 pairs of shoes donated over five years.
This year's goal is 15,000 pairs and — with health and safety at the forefront — contact-less pick-up or drop-off at the Airport Road location is now available. The collection for the early-2021 edition of Soles4Souls will likely depend less on door-to-door shoe drives than in years past, due to the pandemic.
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BioPed's charitable mission is to collect used shoes to "help change the lives of those less fortunate." As part of the Soles4Souls initiative, BioPed puts "generously donated shoes towards sustainable solutions, such as a micro-enterprise program that educates people on how to create their own, self-sufficient operation, providing them with dignity and a way out of poverty."
The program allows people — predominantly women — in developing countries to operate small businesses. This is accomplished by making startup loans available and by providing a steady supply of high-quality, low-cost products to be re-soled and re-sold at local markets.
Your donated shoes are forwarded to the entrepreneurs on credit for as little as one dollar per pair. Participants are provided lessons on business staples such as inventory control and accounting.
Scott explains, "They specifically invite women into the program because they've found it's just a much better outcome for the community if they get women involved," adding the entire experience has been satisfying to the Kaufmans thanks to witnessing its results with their own eyes.
He recounts the story of a Haitian woman who has been able to put a roof on her home and put family members through university thanks to five years of proceeds through Soles4Souls.
"It's not a handout, it's a hand up," says Scott. "Economic conditions there are brutal but the economic impact of the BioPed network has injected over $1 million into the Haitian economy."
The BioPed franchises will accept any type of shoes in any type of condition. Scott says even the worst of the lot can be salvaged for use to improve health and safety conditions for barefoot workers in rice paddies. The shoes collected in Canada are shipped in containers by boat to the destination.
"These experiences have really galvanized our belief that something as trivial as an old pair of shoes really can make a difference in these people’s lives," adds Scott.
Another bonus of the program is by repurposing what is considered end-of-life goods here in the form of donations, a large number of shoes have been diverted from the local landfill.
Why is North Bay such a haven for shoe donations?
In trying to picture what a pile of 40,000 pairs of shoes would look like, Scott notes, "I think North Bay has a shoe problem."
