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Many families and caregivers are increasingly forced to choose between paying for rent, food, diapers and clothing. SUSAN BAGGETT
At a glance: Cradles to Crayons and TJX
Duration of the partnership: 14 years
Impact: Helping give low-income families clothes and school supplies for children
The TJX Cos.: More than 5,000 stores across nine countries and three continents, with plans to expand to 6,275 stores long-term
Cradles to Crayons: Nonprofit organization that operates in five cities and has 70,000 volunteers.
JUNE 11, 2025, BOSTON, MA — Clothing insecurity impacts 1 in 3 children in Massachusetts, but a partnership between Cradles to Crayons and The TJX Cos. is working to change that.
Through the partnership, which began in 2011, TJX offers financial support, employee volunteerism and mentoring opportunities for clothing drives. Each year, the organizations schedule multiple clothing drives in which they distribute “free, high-quality” essentials to children, fostering community engagement in such cities as Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Since 2002, Cradles to Crayons has distributed around 6 million clothing packages in five different regions. In 2024, the partnership sent 1 million packages of clothing and essentials free of charge where 300,000 were sent to families in Massachusetts.
Cradles to Crayons CEO Christine Morin said the volunteering opportunity has allowed TJX staff to teach expertise on warehouse management and logistics to help improve the organization’s ability to gather and distribute clothing in an efficient and scalable way.
She said they hold volunteering shifts every Wednesday through Saturday at The Giving Factory, where community members, families and volunteers come help support their program.
“Those clothing donations are then processed here in our Giving Factories, and we organize volunteers to sort and package the clothing that goes out to the community organizations serving youth and families,” Morin said. “And one thing I think is really important about what we do is, one of our cornerstone values is, quality equals dignity, and that’s the clothes that we’re distributing to kids should be something that they’re proud to wear.”
Each year the Cradles to Crayons hosts the “backpack-a-thon,” where they fill backpacks with school supplies at the beginning of the school year. In 2024, over 800 TJX associates participated in the event in 15 cities, where they supplied over 25,000 backpacks.
“I think all of this just really emphasizes their dedication and giving back to the communities where they operate,” Morin said. “I would just say that our TJX corporate partnership is really a collaboration. They are a corporate partner who rolls up their sleeves and really walks (and) serves alongside us.”
The program includes clothing-donation programs like “Giving Factory Direct,” in which families can donate clothes for other families. Participating donors package and ship “high-quality and seasonally appropriate clothing.”
“At TJX, we have long been committed to giving back to the communities in which we operate, and we are passionate about supporting nonprofit organizations like Cradles to Crayons that help to fill critical basic needs for vulnerable families,” said a TJX spokesperson in an email.
Morin said Cradles to Crayons has an “extensive network of service partners” that are mostly community based nonprofits, school districts or social service organizations that directly support children and families facing homelessness and low income situations. These service partners are able to directly order from Cradles to Crayons to deliver them directly to the families.
“Those service partners use our partner portal, they place orders online,” Morin said. “Each order is based on the specific needs of a child that’s in their care, and then we process those orders at the giving factory.
Morin said she looks forward to building a strategic plan to emphasize a long term strategy for impact and growth where they can help more kids. Morin said they are continuously on the lookout for more corporate partners and community members to engage with their events.
“We know that there is more need out there, and we want to make sure that we can do everything to support kids,” Morin said.