MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It has taken a lifetime, but one passion for fashion has helped create an ecosystem of giving here in the Bluff City.
In Memphis, more than 21% of people live in poverty, not knowing where their next meal will come from, or how they can find clothes for their family. But one vintage clothes reseller has taken their dream and turned it into a way to help people.
“We were the weird kids who wore the weird clothes in high school, and we never stopped,” said J.R. Reed with Time To Waste Quality Vintage Goods.
ABC24 first got to know Reed back in May, who uses online platforms like Instagram, Whatnot and Tiktok to auction off clothes instead of using a brick and mortar shop.
“You can feel it, once you’ve been doing this for a while, the feeling,” said Reed said.
Since he was a kid, Reed said he had felt at home at thrift stores.
“I can close my eyes at a thrift store and run my rack at a thrift store and pull you out a shirt that was made before 1995,” said Reed.
From there, the appreciation became Time to Waste Vintage, which Reed runs with his wife. In between those sales, the Memphian has dedicated to giving back to nonprofits across his home neighborhood, bringing clothes and even food to places like the Leawood Mission Center.
“I just cannot tell y’all how much a blessing that him and his wife had been," said Judy Bell, the Leawood Mission Center director. "He goes to the kitchen, he sees the need, he sees if I’m low on something. It’s here either that day or the next day.”
This generosity is not Reed's alone. Every month, Time to Waste runs charity auctions online, where the proceeds, tips and love make its way from virtual strangers to Memphians in need.
“In my life, look I’ve made mistakes, I’ve been given a thousand second, third and fourth chances, and I think everybody deserves that," said Reed, "and I just ask myself at the end of every day, ‘Did we do more help today than harm?’ and that’s an easy indicator on if I’m doing the right thing.”
Since March, Reed tells ABC24 Time to Waste has helped provide more than $1,000 in food and 4,000 lbs. of clothes to the Mission Center.