Every year volunteers for the Buy Nothing Day Coat Exchange collect and distribute winter coats to people in need on the day after Thanksgiving outside the Rhode Island State House in Providence. (Courtesy of Buy Nothing Coat Exchange)
Every year on the morning after Thanksgiving, as eager shoppers queue up for sales at Providence Place mall, another line forms across the street on the Rhode Island State House lawn for the Buy Nothing Day Coat Exchange .
For over two decades, the coat drive has provided around 1,500 free winter coats per year to people in need — primarily unhoused people, refugee and low-income families and those recently released from incarceration…