Thrift Store: 

Gently used clothing, shoes, accessories, and other items.  $5 per bag including clothes and shoes. 

Hours of Operation:  Sunday, Monday, Tuesday 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Located on the campus of Highland Academy

                                                      Highland Circle Drive
                                                      Portland, TN

Our community services exists to serve our community in Christ’s name. We operate a Thrift Store on the campus of Highland Academy. For food assistance we partner with Portland Pay It Forward.

Leader: Elaine Cantrell

Contact Information: 615-519-8785

St. Vincent and the Grenadines UPDATE:

October 27^th, 2021

Hear Highland Church family,

It was several months ago when I spoke to you on behalf of my home land of St. Vincent And The Grenadines, which at that time had just been devasted by two weeks of continued explosive eruptions from the La Soufriere volcano located on the north side of the island. After my plea to you for help, you along with Highland Community Services, and Portland Pay It forward donated generously to the volcano relief.  Subsequently the President of the SDA mission there in St. Vincent And The Grenadines, and the Pastor of the Northern District church of SDA in Bequia, which is the largest of the Grenadine Islands have sent thank you letters expressing their sincere gratitude.  The letters along with several photographs are posted on the Church’s website.  Presently there are still 126 persons remaining in shelters.  These are persons whose houses have not been rebuilt yet or those who have not been relocated to another area on the island.  The relief is still going on, but now it’s also structured to help the families that have contracted Covid 19 while living in the shelters and have to be placed in quarantine, and whose income have been affected due to unemployment.

Over the past five months the SDA mission there in concert with ADRA have prepared 140K hot meals, that includes breakfast and lunch on a daily basis except on Sabbath,  and have delivered on an average to 600 displaced persons living in shelters.  Large food boxes, clothing and cases of water were also delivered to many families displaced from the red zone who were temporarily living with families in private homes on the mainland and in Bequia.  The cash donations were used to help pay the teachers in the virtual classrooms.

This was a great effort and it took a while to get the logistics worked out.  The large pallet boxes or D-Containers as they are called in the shipping business had to be packed, shrink wrapped, weighed and shipped by truck to Miami.  In Miami they had to be weighed again, then put into 2 large 20-foot containers and finally shipped to the island nation of St. Vincent And The Grenadines.

On behalf of my Country along with the thank you letters received, I personally want to thank all those from my home church here at Highland SDA church, who gave generously and sacrificially to this cause. I also want to thank HCS for their generous donation.  We as a church are very grateful also to an anonymous donor who paid all the shipping expenses. Without that generous contribution all the cash donations would have gone to shipping charges.  So, on behalf of HSDA Church and HCS we extend our gratitude and thanks to that donor.  With Jesus our example, let us continue to be his hands and feet in our community and beyond whether it’s a small need or a large crisis.

Thank you,

Michelle Gooding

On April 9th 2021 the La Soufriere volcano, situated on the northern part of Saint Vincent Island, erupted, and continued erupting for over a week, sometimes twice a day, sending plumes of ash, rocks and poisonous gases into the air as high as 53k feet. The continued eruptions have caused serious damage to agricultural, animal life, and contamination of the water supply. Ash has covered the entire island, and in some areas it's more than two feet thick.  Many house roofs have collapsed from the weight of the ash and experts say it will take years for Saint Vincent's agriculture to come back, which is the backbone of the economy there are about 16,000 to 20,000 people in shelters. The Seventh-day Adventist mission there has asked for assistance. Presently they are providing meals for 600 people twice a day.

Highland Adventist Community services collected basic necessities  to ship to St. Vincent's and the Grenadines. Here are some pictures of the collection both here in Portland and as it's received in St Vincent.