Why Millie's?

In 1981, Millie Haughn began a small operation out of her home with a mission to financially assist teachers in the Lafayette Catholic School System. For many years Millie accepted the donations of friends and family and resold the items in her garage as she gave all profits to the local Catholic schools. Millie’s efforts and generous giving of her time and talent for others has grown exponentially. 

Fast forward 40 years and Millie’s has now grown to three locations in the  Lafayette area.

The mission of Millie's has grown too. We now support more than just the Lafayette Catholic School System (LCSS) - we support the community. We are a registered 501(c)(3) not for profit organization with a volunteer board, fantastic employees, and army of volunteers.   This means our goal is not to be a for profit organization but instead provide a service to the community.  

We often get asked how we support the community and are proud to answer that question! We do this in a number of ways:

• Our prices are low, so our products are affordable. We see this as one of our main missions – making items accessible to all, not to make profit on items.

• Hire employees! We offer employment to many people in the community and pay well above the going rate.  Many of our employees are first time job seekers and we love to set them up for success with important life skills.

• Millie’s Cares – we have a program that allows our community to identify people in need and give them clothing with no questions asked. We give about $10k a month in clothing donations.  You can find out more here

• Senior program – we employee seniors through a federal program and help them gain experience and skills.

• Internships – we offer paid internships to college students.

• Scholarships – we give out scholarships to students who work or donate time in our store.

• Support education – we do still donate money to LCSS where we can (our low prices are low so we mostly cover costs), but we also support other schools and school programs. Schools and programs can be nominated! Let us know how we can help  in fact, we recently gave to Jeff High School Music Program

• Sustainability program – we recycle as much as we can and recycle any clothing that is not up to standard to be sold. This reduces waste and helps other organizations who then take these items and turn them into other products.

By donating and shopping at Millie's you are helping our community with job opportunities, stewardship and much much more! If you have ideas on how we can do more, just let us know!