2022
Clothes Rail
Maya was helping settling Ukrainian families and asking the community to leave items of clothing on a rail outside of her cafe
2023
Shop
Donations were overwhelming the community cafe. Social Media helped spread to the community and a Community Interest Company was formed.
2024
Growth
The Community came forward to support the organisation , registering, inducting and training 200 volunteers to help run the organisation 365 days a year.
2025
Warehouse
A National Lottery Grant enabled the charity to sign a five year lease on a 4,000 square foot warehouse.
When the Ukrainian war started Maya was saving vulnerable Ukrainians from the basements of the war. When they were arriving to the UK most had very little clothing or items. Maya started asking (on Facebook) for donations of clothing for the arriving Ukrainians. When Maya managed to fill the essential needs of the arriving Ukrainians she had two full bags of clothing left over, as these were donations Maya wanted them to go to a worthy home and so set up a 1 meter long clothes rail with not even 20 items on it outside the community cafe with the note “All Free, just grab and go”. What happened next was unexpected, people started to not only take items but bring donations. People liked helping each other and admired the fact that no one was profiting from their items. In five days , one rail became three rails and in five months (now December) one rail had turned into twenty rails and not only that, the community cafe was full of donations like ; clothing, electrical items (which are PAT tested before going out), bric-a-brac, household items, crockery, kitchen utensils, toys, games and anything you can possibly think of that would be in someones house that they no longer need. Because this was unplanned and the growth happened organically , there was no space anymore in the community cafe to run the food bank or run the cafe. Maya was stressed and panicking, until one night in December at 3am Maya woke suddenly with the idea of opening a specialist shop nearby where everything donated would be available to those who need it for Free.
People around her were sceptical about the sustainability of the shop and tried to talk her out of such a crazy move. Even close friends questioned how she would pay the rent. But Maya followed her dream because she is convinced that when you do something for the right reasons and help people, money and success always follows!
The Free shop opened in December 2022. Maya met with a local Landlady who had an empty shop and had heard about the work Maya was doing for the community, Maya was honest with her and told her she had no idea how she was going to pay the rent but the kind landlady decided to give Maya a chance and agreed a discounted rent. A lease was agreed at 9pm, by 9am the following morning the shop was full of stock, open to the public and on the headlines of all news outlets. Today Maya’s Free Shop has 100s of people visiting every hour it is open (Monday – Saturday 9am – 3pm). We have only one rule and that is no re-selling of any items you find in the shop. Other than that you are welcome to take what you need and bring what you no longer need. The Free Shop has become a life line for people who have been effected by the cost of living crisis, escaping domestic abuse, suffering house fire or flood and other emergency or difficult life situations
The Freeshop grew in popularity, attracted many news stories (both local and national)
For more details on the media click here to visit our Freeshop in the media page.
As the shop became more popular so did the the number of donations that the free shop received. Within a few months of opening it was receiving 100s of bags a day which we have calculated saves 7,400 tonnes of CO2 per year (2024). Textile donations which do not pass quality control are ‘ragged’ and sold in order to generate a monthly income to pay the rent.
Many people would travel from far and wide to see what all the fuss was about. We were receiving visitors from the far reaches of the UK saying that they had come to Herne Bay to see what this ‘Freeshop’ was all about.
The Freeshop receives 1,000’s of bags of donations each week, has between 150-250 visitors everyday it is open. Since being open we have been closely monitoring and studying the impact on the both the environment and community.
On Friday the 18th April 2025 Mayas Community Support Centre opened a 4,000 square foot warehouse. Johnathan Neame – High Sheriff of Kent did us the honour of cutting the ribbon to open this community resource. The Free Shop, Furniture bank, Mobility bank, Free formal wear hire rail, electrical bank, food larder and evening surplus food bank.
Donations are welcome and can be received when we are open Monday – Saturday 9am – 3pm. Our warehouse reception team can be contacted on 01227 906 125 for any questions about what we can accept. Unfortunately we cannot take knives or car seats.
The warehouse is located at Unit 3 Herne Bay West Industrial Park, Sea Street,Herne Bay, CT6 8JZ.