ReFiber, Refuge, and Remembering My First Grocery Shopping in America: A Day of Volunteering with LSSNCA

 Today I volunteered with Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area (LSSNCA), helping prepare for the launch of ReFiber, a new textile recycling and reuse initiative beginning in early 2026. I arrived expecting an afternoon of cutting donated fabrics down to usable sale sizes, recovering notions like buttons, zippers, and elastic, or sorting clothing to determine what can be recycled, reused, or resold.

ReFiber is LSSNCA’s newest pilot program—an ambitious textile recycling and reuse effort rooted in sustainability and community empowerment. The goal is simple but profound: transform donated textiles into materials for sales, reduce waste, and create a circular system and profits from any materials sold from this waste diversion pathway will go directly to supporting LSSNCA mission and services that supports refugees and immigrants rebuilding their lives in the U.S.

The passionate lead volunteer, Elizabeth who’s been working with LSSNCA for a long time, greeted me warmly and took me through the first floor, where LSSNCA already runs a bustling, deeply human operation. Rows of shelves lined with diapers, canned foods, socks, clothes, and backpacks full of school supplies.

“We give vouchers to refugees so that they may experience shopping.”

Elizabeth explained to me. This would help them learn how American life works. Standing in that room, I remembered a moment from my first grocery shopping in America, which was in Texas, shortly after I immigrated. At the checkout counter, the cashier said something I couldn’t understand. I froze. He repeated the question, louder this time. Then he held up two bags—one brown, one white—and said again, “Paper or plastic?” At that moment, I felt entirely alien, undone by a simple question about bags. In Korea, we don’t say “plastic bags”—we call them vinyl bags (비닐봉지). It was the first time I realized how fragile, how overwhelming, how humbling it is to start a life in a new country.

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“This part will soon become a thrift shop.” Elizabeth showed me the upcoming shop and pointed to an empty corner, saying “This space will be filled with salvaged textiles.”

Upstairs, we began working on textiles: I cut donated fabrics down to usable sale sizes, another volunteer, Andrea, sorted miscellaneous items in a big bin and Elizabeth sorted and repackaged yarns. Toward the end of our volunteer time, Elizabeth said, “I’m so happy you two came to help today despite such a short notice. We’ve achieved a lot. You will both always be prep session one!” And I responded, “I’m from Korea. We have an old saying, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

ReFiber is not just recycling textiles; it is recycling possibility. Every yard of fabric saved, every button recovered, becomes part of a cycle of care—where nothing is wasted, and everything can be repurposed into someone else’s beginning.