Loyola’s campaign saved useable items from dumpster fate

Five years ago on graduation day, dumpsters at Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore, were filled with lamps, Swiffer mops, unopened food, and kitchen supplies. But thanks to the Good Stuff Campaign developed by Loyola’s Center for Community Service and Justice, the college’s dumpsters remained nearly empty and the donation collection bins were full as undergraduates and graduates moved out of campus dorms.

“There was a concern about the number of good, usable, sometimes like-new items which were being thrown out in dumpsters in the rush to move out,” said Dennis McCunney, assistant director of the center and a 1998 Loyola alumnus. “These were things students didn’t want to lug home.”

Housewares, clothing, furniture, and electronics were also among the stash of unwanted belongings students donated to a dozen or so community partners such as Healthcare for the Homeless and St. Peter’s Adult Learning Center, to name a few. The campaign ran eight hours a day for six days May 14-19, and utilized 15 student volunteers who moved between, and collected in, residence halls such as Campion Towers, Newman Towers, and Lange Court.

Agencies were invited to bring trucks to pick up items suited to their needs. Two Goodwill tractor trailers were filled to capacity and two entire vans of food containing ramen noodles, gourmet pasta, granola bars and all sorts of unperishables went to St. Ambrose Center on Park Heights Avenue and CARES Food Pantry on York Road. About 20 bags of clothing were picked up by St. Vincent de Paul Society’s Mobile Clothing Bank.

“It’s a great campus collaborative effort,” said Mr. McCunney, happy to provide the opportunity for items to be reused, “because Student Life and Public Safety were involved. We like to think if we didn’t do this program how many more dumpsters we’d need to throw stuff away.”