Ironically, some people send clothing rather than cash because they are afraid the cash might not get to the right place, or get used up in administrative costs. That is actually more likely to be the fate of clothing donations. And Salisbury is far from unique. Chris Peterson of West Virginia is an in-kind donations specialist for Church World Service. The other thing it does is take up valuable time.
Clothing usually comes in small quantities, making it hard to distribute effectively.
When it comes in a semi truck, it takes 20 people three whole days to unload, sort and prepare. And then maybe half of the things are useless. There was a really intensive heat wave and Highway 17 in South Carolina was down from four lanes to a lane and a half the whole length of the state. There were boats washed up on the road and electric lines down. Power company workers were literally camped out along the side of the road, trying to get power back.