Good Cheer Thrift Store Wins $50,000 Grant for Community Hub Renovation

Above the donated-clothing racks at Good Cheer's Langley Thrift Store on Anthes Avenue, the second floor is about to change. A $50,000 T-Mobile Hometown Grant, one of just 25 awarded to small towns nationwide in this funding round, will convert the upper level into a flexible gathering and co-working hub intended to broaden what South Whidbey's longest-running food bank nonprofit can offer its community.

Good Cheer has served the island since 1962, running a choice-model food bank, two thrift stores, and a community garden that supplies fresh produce. The Langley store at 114 Anthes Ave and a second location on State Route 525 in Clinton generate the revenue that funds food bank operations for families, seniors, students, artists, farmers, veterans, and others across the island. The renovated hub will add flexible meeting areas and co-working stations suited for classes, volunteer coordination, job search support, and community workshops — programming capacity the Langley store currently cannot accommodate upstairs.

Executive Director Jonathan Kline leads the organization as it moves toward construction. The store team has already begun preparing the second-floor space, and T-Mobile's program requires all funded projects to be completed within 12 months of the award, setting a deadline of roughly spring 2027.

On an island reachable only by Washington State Ferry or the Deception Pass bridge to the north, locally anchored gathering space carries added weight when severe weather or service disruptions cut South Whidbey off from outside resources. The new hub could serve as a warming and charging station during outages, extending Good Cheer's existing resilience work that has included solar and food-preservation projects in recent years.

T-Mobile runs the Hometown Grants program in partnership with Main Street America and has now invested more than $21.5 million across 475 small towns and rural communities in the United States and Puerto Rico. Langley's selection brings T-Mobile's total Washington State investment through the program to nearly $800,000 across 17 communities; the company has committed up to $25 million to the initiative through 2026.

Good Cheer's winning application drew backing from the Whidbey Community Foundation, the Langley Chamber of Commerce, Langley's Main Street Association, and Sno-Isle Library. Anyone looking to support the project during construction can shop either thrift store location, where every purchase goes directly toward food bank operations, or contact Good Cheer to join its volunteer roster before the second floor reopens in its new form.