We’re excited to announce the recipients of the Change for our Community program in 2025!
Our Change program gives shoppers the opportunity to donate their pocket change to local community organizations each time they shop. Each month at our Lawrence store, The Merc Co+op chooses a different Change recipient, and all donations collected that month go to that specific organization. In KCK, we partner with one local organization for the year.
A committee of co-op employees selected organizations from a pool of more than 30 local applications to be featured at the registers. At our Lawrence store, our partners are:
January — Lawrence Farmers’ Market
February — Lawrence NAACP
March — Douglas County CASA
April — Growing Food Growing Health (GFGH)
July — Lawrence Arts Center
August — Literacy KC
September — Stop Gap, Inc.
October — Kansas Land Trust
November — Lawrence Community Shelter
December — Giving Tree Adopted Families (ECKAN of Douglas County)
In KCK, our partner is Cross-Lines Community Outreach.
The co-op’s charitable giving program Change for our Community is celebrating eleven years of giving back to the community. Since it began in January 2014, Change has raised more than $700,000 for over fifty local organizations. Thank you to all the local non-profits that applied this year.
Change for our Community offers four ways to give.
Round Up: Round the amount of your order up to the next dollar and the difference will be redirected to this month's Change recipient.
Bag Refunds: Bring your own bag, and the 5¢ bag refund will be redirected to the Change recipient.
Change Jars: Drop your spare change into the jars at our cash registers. (Lawrence location)
For more information, visit our Donations page, view our archive of Change recipients, or contact us.