Laurentian University students taking advantage of Free Store on campus

Free Store helps university students in Sudbury Laurentian University in Sudbury is helping students stock up on necessities they may need during their time at school free of charge.

Laurentian University in Sudbury is helping students stock up on necessities they need during their time at school – and they’re offering them up free of charge.

The Free Store officially opened on campus Friday in the space formerly occupied by the Pub Downunder.

Students can get things like gently used clothing, kitchen items, linens, books and games.

Suryadiv Singh Viglin is a first-year international student from India. He was at the store to find kitchen items and a winter hat. This will be his first winter in Sudbury.

"This is a very good opportunity for people to interact and get stuff that they exactly want," he said.

"We have many things at home that we don’t use, and we forget about them, but you can just simply donate here, and it can be used for someone else."

"Instead of … spending money, it's amazing to be able to come in, grab things that you need for your apartment, your dorm, anything like that," said student and store volunteer Avary Plante.

The Free Store is the brainchild of Cynthia Belfitt, an Indigenous counsellor on campus who’s been working on the project for the past three years after seeing a need within the student population.

"Every fall and every spring I would put out tables and we'd do donations," Belfitt said.

"Students would drop stuff off and students would go through the tables. And we noticed that was a huge success. So that’s where we looked at trying to build this more than it was."

She said about 50 students have come through the Free Store since it opened informally last fall.

"We know that students are struggling financially. Everything, the cost of everything is going up," Belfitt said.

There’s also a sustainability aspect.

"Instead of clothes going out into the landfill, they're coming here and students are being able to access them and utilize that," she said.

Laurentian’s Free Store is open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and is for LU students only.

Donations are welcome. Belfitt said they only need to ring the doorbell at the drop off door during hours of operation. You can also send an email.