Reduce, Reuse, Rehome: Ellen Bennett and the RIFA Auction Group
BY ESTHER JONES
PHOTOS BY Kristen Kasper
When I entered Ellen’s office, I felt like I had just stepped into someone’s home. Organized groupings of woven baskets, antique lamps, vases, books, and knick-knacks lined the shelves that wrapped around the room, and just about every color of the rainbow was somewhere within those four walls. Ellen had handpicked every piece in the room, not for her own collection, but to find each of them a new home.
Since 2020, Ellen Bennett has served as the Online Sales Manager of Regional Inter-Faith Association (RIFA) and is widely known in the Jackson community for her item listings in the RIFA Auction Group on Facebook. Twice a month, she conducts an online auction with around 80 unique items — all previously donated to the organization — for the public to bid on throughout the week. The proceeds of every auction item go to RIFA, a Jackson-based nonprofit with a mission to fight hunger locally, so item winners get to help provide meals to food-insecure members of the community with their purchases. For each listing, whether it’s a mid-century lamp, a tricycle, or a vegetable chopper, she comes up with a compelling description that’ll have anyone hooked.
Outside of work, Ellen has hobbies that are actually not so different from her full-time job. Since childhood, she’s been cultivating a skill that she calls picking. “Picking is going to yard sales, going to estate sales, or even looking on the side of the road and finding pieces that need a little bit of love. Ever since I was a little girl, I would go to yard sales with my daddy, so I feel like I’ve been doing what I do at RIFA for my whole life,” she explains. “One of the things that I think people don’t know about Jackson is that there are fabulous estate sale companies. I’ve gotten many things for my home from estate sales, and I can look through my home and point out where they’re from — yard sale, estate sale, yard sale, and so on,” she explains.
Beyond picking, she sometimes upcycles worn-out furniture that she finds by fixing it up and implementing her creative vision. “I have a passion to take the things that have been cast off, things that people see no purpose or life in, that they would just throw away, and I see that they still work, like the drawers still slide in and out. Maybe there are some coffee stains, or there’s a drawer pull that’s not there anymore. A lot of the time, there’s more life there, and I see how I can restore the life of the piece or give it a fresh new life.”
Ellen’s professor during her time in the theatre program at Union, Mr. Burke, shares her passion for upcycling furniture. Inspired by the way he would flip pieces to use as props and sets on stage, she has learned a lot about the craft from him. Now, as neighbors, she and Mr. Burke work on occasional projects in their driveways.
Declaring an English minor in college, Ellen has also grown up with an interest in writing, and her witty storytelling style makes even the most commonplace items in the auction come to life. “I like going to yard sales, I like looking through things, and I like writing, so it’s like the amalgamation of all my weird strengths that I didn’t really recognize as strengths at first all in one job,” she says.
“I get to write. I get to be a picker every day. Multiple times a day, there are donations coming to me at RIFA. I don’t have to go through estate sales and thrift stores because it comes to me — so much good stuff all the time that I can’t believe I get to look through.”
Monday through Saturday, anyone can drop off donations to RIFA on Airways Boulevard, and the donations don’t have to be just food or necessities like clothes and blankets. Because of the RIFA Auction Group and the RIFA Thrift Store, which is open to the public, people can donate really anything in good condition.
“Just because the person who donated something doesn't have a purpose for it anymore doesn’t mean that it’s without purpose”
When Ellen looks for donations to set aside for the next auction, she tries to pick things that she knows people will like or that are trendy at the moment, like mid-century and eclectic decor. Other times, she chooses items that are just interesting or unusual, and she has been surprised at how sought-after they can be in the auctions. Some of her recent listings have been water skis, DSLR cameras, and a vintage wooden picnic basket.
“Just because the person who donated something doesn't have a purpose for it anymore doesn’t mean that it’s without purpose,” Ellen says. One of the most rewarding aspects of her role is getting to rehome an item to someone who extends its life because of the value that they see in it. “There was a shoe-shining kit in a box in the auction once, and the woman who won it sent me a precious message saying that her father had died, and he used to have a shoe-shining kit in a box just like that one. She was sad that she never got the one that her father had, but this one was almost just like his, so now she feels like she has a memory of her father.”
“So many people want to pigeonhole Jackson as what it is not, but I want to talk about what it is, and I think that it is full of so many wonderful, kind-hearted, generous, interesting people. Jackson is the people. It’s not about what experiences we don’t have or places we don’t have. I’m here—I’ve been here—because of all of my people.”
Each auction benefits every person involved: the donors of the items, the people who purchase items in the auction group, and the people who use RIFA’s services. Donors generally know that what they’re donating has value, and even though they don’t need or want these things, they can be confident that their items are helping a local organization to help people. Purchasers in the auction get to know that, in addition to winning an item, their dollars are going back to the community. People using RIFA’s services, which are supported by purchases in the auction group, receive security and sustenance from healthy meals.
Ellen witnesses countless moments of genuine selflessness in her position, and one moment during her first year at RIFA has especially stuck with her. A couple named Debra and Jimmy Taylor bought a plain brown headboard and footboard set in the auction, but then they felt called to build the pieces into a gorgeous bench and donate it back to RIFA to be auctioned again. “They paid for it with their own money and then spent time and effort and materials and more money to make a bench all to give it back to RIFA for us to generate income,” Ellen recalls. “I was floored. I was humbled. I was so excited to take pictures of it and post it in the auction and write in the description about what had happened.”
The RIFA Auction Group betters the community in a tangible way by providing meals to people in need, but it’s also a symbol of some of Jackson’s best traits: how unique, compassionate, and invested in this city its residents are. Through the auction, Ellen creates an avenue for kindness to inspire kindness, for kindness to make a visible difference. Ellen is a prime example of the talent that Jackson holds and what it looks like when people use their talents for good. Her creativity connects the community.
I’m sure Ellen could’ve spent hours telling me all the incredible stories that she’s seen and heard through the auction, and I know I was surrounded by stories in all the colorful lamps, baskets, and knick-knacks in her office. As we wrapped up our conversation though, she told me, “So many people want to pigeonhole Jackson as what it is not, but I want to talk about what it is, and I think that it is full of so many wonderful, kind-hearted, generous, interesting people. Jackson is the people. It’s not about what experiences we don’t have or places we don’t have. I’m here—I’ve been here—because of all of my people.”
A Maryland native, Esther Jones moved to Jackson in 2019 to complete her English degree at Union University. She lives with her husband, Wesley, and their dog, Otis. Her favorite things are contemporary fiction novels and personality tests, and she doesn't know what she would do without em dashes.