Habitat for Humanity is helping students furnish their houses with savings on appliances and furniture for the month of August.
Student Discount Days has returned to Habitat ReStores for the second year in a row, with students able to show their school ID’s to receive 20 per cent off certain items.
“The first time we went through the program, we realized this is an opportunity that we hadn’t seen before for students,” Jorja Hall, partnerships coordinator for Habitat for Humanity Halton, Mississauga, Dufferin, said. “There are affordable couches, chairs, appliances, things we needed. We were walking through and saying I wish I knew about this when I was moving into my student house.”
Those behind the initiative are preliminary Canada Summer Job students, a program from the federal government that funds workplaces to create student work opportunities in the summer.
In total, Habitat for Humanity Halton, Mississauga, Dufferin employs 14 students through the program. Other members of the team who have taken on the Student Discount Days include database and research coordinator Javian Gapasin, government and PR coordinator Andrew Ortega, and event and research coordinator Rachel Yao.
“We have them distributed in our different locations,” Jackie Isada, VP of strategic partnerships and community relations said. “As the name suggests, we have stores in Halton, Mississauga, and Dufferin, as well as Orangeville. Our flagship store is Burlington, but we have students in all of our locations.”
Parents are often more enthusiastic about the deals than the students, as restored couches can be had for as little as $300. For reference, the cheapest non-loveseat couch at IKEA starts at $400.
Even non-students can benefit from the influx of sales, as certain items are on sale each week at the shops.
“From August 12 to 18, all couches are 30 per cent off,” Isada said. “The following week it’s 30 per cent off chairs.”
Last year’s event only lasted a week, but was so successful that staff knew it needed to be extended to a month.
“We wanted to expand as much as possible with others in the organization,” Hall said. “We’ve had people on other teams who have wanted to come learn about this and get in on it. They’re sharing their ideas, and it’s great to see something that we had as a small idea last summer expand and grow into a bit of a staple.”
This is Hall’s second year with Habitat for Humanity, while she is studying marketing at the University of Guelph.
She said the experience she is gaining from Habitat will be applicable in her studies, and she hopes beyond as well.
“Having been in other jobs before, and having the feeling of looking back at what I’d done during the summer, there wasn’t much to show for it,” Hall said. “That shifted when I started working at Habitat for Humanity, and I’m proud to be able to do this work again.”