Menifee Holiday Store helps support Community Cupboard

The Menifee Holiday Store has a wide variety of Christmas items. Menifee 24/7 photo: Doug Spoon

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The regulars know where to look for the “Holiday Shop” each year about this time. They call it a “pop-up shop”. They never know exactly which space it will occupy, but it’s virtually guaranteed to appear in the Cherry Hills Plaza.

“People look for us, like, ‘Where are they going to pop up this year?’” said Cheryl Hussey, director of the Holiday Store. “The regulars know us. But we need more regulars.”

Why? Because the more people who patronize the Menifee Holiday Store, the more money is raised for the Menifee Valley Community Cupboard, which provides food for Menifee residents in need.

This year, the Menifee Holiday Store is located on the southwest corner of the main plaza building, located at 26880 Cherry Hills Blvd. in the Sun City community. On the opposite corner of the center is the Community Cupboard, with its associated thrift store a few doors down. The rest of the year, the thrift store helps support the Cupboard’s food program by sales of donated items.

From October through December, the Holiday Store opens up to display all the holiday items donated by residents for sale. The proceeds further enhance the Cupboard’s ability to assist those in need.

“These are all donations that came over from the thrift store,” Hussey said. “We have such an excess of Christmas items. We have like 300-plus tote [bags] of items. The property owner, wherever he has an empty building, he lets us pop up with a shop each year. We open the first day of fall all the way through Christmas.

“We sell through almost every tote. All these proceeds go to support the Cupboard.”

The Menifee Holiday Store has “popped up” at the Cherry Hills Plaza the last five years. One can find a variety of items there, from donated Halloween costumes in October to porcelain Pilgrims in November to every kind of Santa figurine, Christmas sweater and string of lights.

“It’s all things from your Christmas past,” Hussey said. “It’s not just what the buyers decided to put out that year to decorate. Almost anybody can walk in here and say, ‘I used to have one of those when I was a child.’ It’s a wide variety, from vintage collectibles all the way to new things people bought and donated.”

The Menifee Holiday Store has a Facebook page, but primarily publicity is word of mouth among local residents. Many are the same people who patronize the thrift store year-round. And Dawn Smith, director of the Community Cupboard, is appreciate for the support those stories provide.

“It’s really important people come shop,” Smith said. “We really appreciate the donations that help the Cupboard. With the extra funding, we can fill in the gaps on the non-perishables to try to make it a balanced food box that we give to our people.

“The folks who struggle to have enough food, they struggle all year long. But the generosity of others is highest during the holiday months.”

The Cupboard has provided food to 1,049 people so far this year, Smith said. They must qualify for assistance and live at a residence with a Menifee zip code, although assistance is provided to some homeless individuals through cooperation with the city’s SWAG (Social Work Action Group).

“Every Friday we hand out food boxes,” Smith said. “They include eggs, bread, produce, plus any special items stores or individuals have donated. We don’t put junk food in any of our good boxes, though. People have to self select those.”

The Cupboard also has a program to fill backpacks with healthy foods for students in need to take home over the weekend. Many rely on school nutrition programs. And without the extra funding provided by the Holiday Store, those programs could decrease.

“By shopping here, you’re giving right back to the community instead of making some CEO rich,” Hussey said.