Repair Cafes with Pete Marchetto

Today’s episode is a conversation with Pete Marchetto, one of the founders and organizers of the Port Jervis Repair Café in Port Jervis NY. Each month, Pete, his spouse, and the community at St Peter’s Lutheran church open the church to neighbors and community members in need of repairs for household items – vacuums, lamps, chairs, clothing, zippers, and more. Repair coaches help folks to restore their things to working condition, teaching them valuable skills, and building community along the way.

The repair café movement was started in Amsterdam by Martine Potsma as a way of resisting a throw away culture, encouraging sustainability, and lessening the number of things taking up space in landfills. Today, there are over 2500 repair cafes across the world.

Pete and his team have been hosting the Port Jervis repair café since 2023, and have learned a lot in just under a year of operation. In this episode Pete gives us a glimpse into the experience of a repair café, and we talk about planned obsolescence, the throw away culture, and the power of restoration through simple repairs. The repair cafes are a beautiful expression of neighborhood creativity and the common good, and a model of engagement that faith communities seem especially capable of practicing. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Pete Marchetto.

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