It’s not every day that children placed with foster families have access to new, name-brand clothing. One outreach program quite literally set up shop in Onset on Friday, hoping to make that experience a little more common. 

On Aug. 27, a group of volunteers from the Plymouth-based company Honeybee Handiworks hosted the first of what they hope will be several “pop-up shops” in Wareham to benefit local children in foster care.

The volunteers, working in partnership with Mary Nogueras of The Gifted Crate and The Onset Clay Room, set up a small temporary store to provide foster kids with new clothes to start the school year — all at no cost to foster families. 

Tanya Hargat, one of the volunteers, explained that Honeybee Handiworks volunteers collected donations of primarily new (and, more rarely, some gently used) clothing. Then Nogueras — who runs The Gifted Crate, a nonprofit designed to support foster parents and ensure that those in foster care receive a customized “birthday crate” to celebrate their special day — reached out to her network of foster families. 

“We provide a place that [children in foster care] can come and actually shop like it’s a store,” Hargat explained. “We check them out like it’s a store. And they don’t have to bring any money.”

The hope was to help “close the gap” for foster children by providing access to new name-brand clothing, she said.

“It’s less of a stressor, when they go to school, to not have to worry about having always used items,” Hargat said.

Heritage Pop-Up Shop, which ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, was located at The Onset Clay Room. It was the first pop-up shop, but volunteers already have plans to do another larger shop closer to Christmas. 

“It will be a little bit more eventful with toys and things like that for the children,” Hargat said. “It’ll be a complete Christmas event for the kids. It’s not just about coming and getting clothing — it’s coming and getting gifts and some refreshments.”

Jane Torrance, another volunteer who lives in Onset, said they’re looking for another location for the Christmas shop in Wareham. She invited people to reach out if they wanted to donate a location. 

The group has temporarily stopped accepting donations of clothes and other items due to its current surplus. They planned to take inventory once Friday’s pop-up shop ended and evaluate more specific needs before requesting more donations. 

For more information or to contact the group, visit www.honeybeehandyworks.com or email heritagepopupshop@gmail.com.