The Free Store was created in spring 2018 for local open-street festival In The Soil, in order to provide a free, useful, sustainable, and accessible option. Its popularity encouraged us to continue hosting the Free Store in conjunction with other events downtown! In 2022, we hosted 18 Free Stores throughout the summer in collaboration with the James St. Market Series. The Free Store takes things that people no longer want (such furniture, housewares, clothing and accessories, sports gear, books, and school supplies) and passes them along -- at no cost and with no questions asked -- to people who have a use for them. The Free Store is dedicated to providing for the needs of the community (both the student population and Niagara residents) in a manner that promotes sustainability, connection, skill- and resource-sharing, and alternatives to capitalism.

Yes - everything is free, no questions asked! We operate on the basis of generous donations from the community. No identification or proof of need is required to take from the Free Store!

The Niagara Free Store is financially supported by OPIRG Brock as well as donations from community members, sponsors and partners. There is currently no permanent space for the Free Store, but it is one of our main financial goals, as well as being able to support the organization, planning, and staffing of the Free Store! If you or your organization can support us in any of these goals, including obtaining a permanent space for the Free Store or storage in Downtown St. Catharines, we would love to talk about a partnership! You can reach out to us by emailing info@opirgbrock.com.

The Niagara Free Store is a mutual aid project, which means that it operates within a framework of community members helping each other, not the top-down approach that is common with charities. Ideally, everybody would be involved in a continuous exchange of clothes, household items, food, so that everybody would have what they need and nobody would go without. The Niagara Free Store doesn’t require anybody to prove that they are “in need” or “deserve” any of the items we are giving away, and everybody is encouraged to donate the things that they no longer need.

The values and beliefs of the Free Store are to: - Challenge the view that for something to be worthy it needs to have a price attached to it; - Create a no barrier option for folks being able to acquire things they want and need; - Host a non-charity option for mutual aid that showcase the importance of financial accessibility in our events and cities; - Present an alternative that challenges our patterns and beliefs about “need to buy more” and wasteful consumerism.