Edina Ninth-grader Wants Your Gently Used Clothing | Edina

Pranika Kumar holds bags of clothes that will be included in care packages she intends to donate to homeless shelters. Kumar started making the collections after founding Miracle Threads as an effort to help people donate kids’ and teens’ clothing that they no longer need.

Care packages assembled by Miracle Threads are organized by the type of recipient they are meant for, such as “Teen Girl Medium” or “Boys Youth Large.” (Submitted photo)

Quiet playgrounds and the roar of yellow buses are two sure signs that school is back in session. Among the less obvious signs are the garbage bags full of clothes stashed away in basements and garages, as children and teens head back to the classroom sporting new wardrobes.

“Lots of people are doing some back-to-school shopping and have a lot of old clothes they don’t want,” Pranika Kumar, a ninth-grader at Edina High School, said late last month as she was busy getting her organization, Miracle Threads, up and running.

Kumar started Miracle Threads over the summer after realizing that a major factor keeping people from donating their kids’ old clothes is the inconvenience of dropping them off at the Goodwill or another donation center. She’s seeking to overcome that barrier by doing the legwork herself, and getting quality clothes that are still in good condition to the children and teens who need them most.

Organizing much of the effort through the Nextdoor social media site, Kumar has mainly collected clothing from her neighborhood in southwestern Edina, but she said she also takes clothes from neighboring communities such as Eden Prairie, Bloomington and Minnetonka.

With the help of her family, she is collecting those clothes and organizing them into care packages destined for homeless shelters. When she spoke with the Sun Current in late August, she had assembled about 20 such parcels, each with 10-12 pieces of clothing, like sweaters, hoodies and jeans, and sometimes even books, blank journals and BIPOC dolls.

Care packages assembled by Miracle Threads are organized by the type of recipient they are meant for, such as “Teen Girl Medium” or “Boys Youth Large.” (Submitted photo)

“We take everything that these people give because most of them are clothes from their children and teens,” Kumar said. She just requests that the clothes be in good condition, cleaned and folded.

The main destination she has had in mind for these packages is People Serving People, a family-focused shelter in south Minneapolis.

“We are the biggest family homeless shelter in the state,” said Andrea Nordick-Stone, director of development for People Serving People. “ ... On any given night we have over 300 guests with us and about 100 families.”

And growing children go through their clothes quicker than adults, creating a need that Kumar is helping to fill.

“Shelters in general, they need more teenage clothing because teenagers tend to be a little bit rougher on their clothes,” Nordick-Stone said. Shelters are also in need of less common sizes such as plus and petite, and clothing suitable for job interviews.

Nordick-Stone said the relationship between Miracle Threads and People Serving People is still being worked out – the shelter doesn’t normally accept clothing donations due to storage limitations. The shelter does, however, appreciate donations of gift cards to stores like Target so that people can pick out their own clothes.

As she works to further establish a connection with People Serving People, Kumar said her organization is open to donating to other shelters as well.

“Our main goal is to provide clothes to children and teens in the community in need, and if there is a time that People Serving People has enough clothes or doesn’t need these donations at the moment, then we are definitely aware of quite a few shelters around the area in need of clothing that we would love to donate there as well,” she wrote in an email.

Aside from putting clothes on the backs of the people who need them, Kumar is also proud to be preventing waste. The clothing and textile industry accounts for 2-8% of greenhouse gas emissions globally, according to the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion.

As she continues working to benefit both the environment and the less fortunate, Kumar hopes to one day register Miracle Threads as an official nonprofit organization.

Donations to Miracle Threads can be arranged at miraclethreads.wixsite.com/website/get-involved.

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