Who We Are
Since 1993 the CNDC has been providing children’s gently used clothing, footwear, toys, and equipment free of charge to families with limited financial resources. Clients make an appointment to come in on a Tuesday and pick up what they need for their children.
NEW LOCATION
Beginning April 6, 2026, the CNDC will be sharing space with Retail Therapy KW-Thrift, a registered charity at 1668 King St. East in Kitchener. Our mandate remains the same, to offer children’s items free of charge. CNDC clients must enter the building from the King St. side, using the door with the ramp.
Hours of Service
The CNDC serves clients every Tuesday. Appointments are necessary, and are for one hour periods starting at 9, then at 10, 11, and 12. We close at 1:00 pm. Families can come to the Centre approximately every three months. Please bring your own bags.
Contact
To book an appointment or ask for information, please email us at [email protected] or call 519-745-9461 extension 4. You will be asked to leave a message clearly stating your name, phone number, and reason for your call. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
Donations
The CNDC serves about 200 children each month and relies on a constant supply of donations in order to have enough for each family. We accept gently used, clean clothing in all sizes from infant to teen, footwear, toys, books, and baby items including cribs (excluding drop-side), bassinets, strollers, high chairs.
Donations can now be dropped off inside the Weber Street entrance of the Retail Therapy building at 1668 King Street East, Kitchener.
Donation hours:
- Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 6pm
- Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 5pm
Please mark your bags or boxes with “CNDC”. Do not include adult clothing or housewares, these items can be bagged separately and left at the same location.
Please note: do not drop off used car seats unless you have first contacted CNDC staff. Because of liability we must ensure that they have not been in an accident and are still well within their expiration date. This is 7 years from the date of manufacture for infant seats, 10 years for toddler seats.
Provision of New Infant Car Seats
A referral from a social service agency, community centre staff, the hospital, a pregnancy centre, clinic, or anyone else in authority who knows the financial needs of a family is necessary to access a new infant car seat. The worker needs to contact the CNDC by email well in advance of the due date to find out if a seat is available and make arrangements for it to be picked up.
We prefer that a seat be picked up on regular Tuesday morning but other arrangements can be made. We do not give out the seats more than a few weeks prior to the due date. Also, our policy is one seat per family.
Families picking up a seat will be asked for a very small cash donation if they are able ($2, $5), to be used to purchase more seats. It would be helpful if workers made this known to their clients.
Please note that we do not usually have the next stage car seat for toddlers.