The two little girls bounced with excitement as they followed Joseph Rudden through their mother’s apartment, watching him write down a list of what the family needed.
“They were so happy because for the first time in their lives, they were going to have their own beds,” Rudden told City Council at a recent meeting. “It’s just life changing.”
That moment, he said, captures the mission of the Rudden Family Foundation to help families moving out of homelessness or crisis situations turn empty housing into real homes.
Rudden and his brother Kevin, representatives of the nonprofit founded by their family, appeared before council to share the foundation’s work and ask for support in expanding services for Reading residents.
The foundation collects donated furniture and household items such as beds, couches, dressers and kitchenware. Then, working with partner organizations, it delivers items to families transitioning out of shelters or crisis situations.
By serving hundreds of people each year, including many children and single-parent households, the organization provides not only furnishings, but also dignity, stability and a sense of care for those rebuilding their lives, Joseph Rudden said.
The roots of the organization go back to his upbringing, he explained in an interview after the meeting.
“I grew up the oldest of 10 children,” he said. “Our upbringing was very frugal. You never wasted anything. You reused everything.”
Joe Rudden says the Rudden Family Foundation relies on grants and sponsorships to deliver donated furniture from the nonprofit’s warehouse in the 300 block of South 13th Street to residents transitioning out of homelessness. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
After moving to the Reading area in the 1990s and raising his family here, Rudden said he was stunned to learn about the depth of poverty in the city.
He and his family initially began by giving money directly to people in need through local organizations, but Rudden said they soon realized that money alone wasn’t always the missing piece.
Over and over, he heard from partner organizations: “We have people that want to give us a bed or a sofa or a TV. We’re social workers. We have no resources available to distribute donated goods.”
So Rudden bought a pickup truck, threw open his garage and started collecting and delivering the donated household items.
“The floodgates opened,” he said.
The small effort grew into a nonprofit warehouse-based operation with trucks, a paid staff of six and partnerships across Berks County.
Today, Rudden said, the foundation works with about 15 to 20 partner organizations that refer families transitioning out of shelters or unstable housing.
Rudden said the group goes room to room with clients, identifying what they need, then fills deliveries with furniture, kitchenware and household essentials.
“We’re taking their housing and turning it into a real home,” he said.
Last year alone, the foundation completed more than 230 deliveries, serving over 640 individuals, many of them children.
Kevin Rudden told council the work is about more than furniture.
“The word we’re dancing around is dignity,” he said. “We give them dignity. It’s customized. It’s personalized.”
The brothers said demand continues to grow, but funding limits how many deliveries they can make.
“I need to make payroll every week. I need to pay the rent every month. I got to put gas in the trucks,” Joseph Rudden told council.
While donations of furniture are steady, over 800 donations a year, he said, meeting delivery costs are the biggest challenge.
More than half of the families served cannot afford a delivery charge, leaving the foundation reliant on grants and sponsorships.
“I’d love to find a way for somebody in the general public to say, ‘Boy, I’d like to sponsor a family,’” Rudden said.
He also hopes larger businesses will step forward.
“I would love to have some of the major corporations commit to helping to deliver to some families,” he said.
While the foundation accepts donations of furniture and household goods, Rudden emphasized they must be usable.
“We take everything that’s in good, usable condition. We’re not 1-800 Got junk,” he said.
Council members thanked the brothers and discussed possible connections to state grant resources and local foundations.
Rudden said the goal is simple: More housing that truly feels like home.
“They now have a bed that has a comforter on it,” he said. “So as the homeless crisis evolves, this is a significant service.”
For more information, visit theruddenfamilyfoundation.org/.