For about three weeks each year, the River Campus is a blur of students eagerly moving out of their dorms, ready to begin whatever excitement and relaxation that summer may bring. In this hustle, many things that students are not able to fit into their bags, or simply do not want to take with them, are often left behind or thrown away. In order to help bring balance to this, Facilities Team Green held its annual Move-out Cleanout event for a seventh consecutive year. Collected food is donated to Open Door Mission and clothing is donated to Planet Aid. This year, the results were astounding.
The University set new records in both food and clothing collected. Move-out Cleanout 2015 collected 3,046 pounds of non-perishable food; that’s enough to feed about 110 people for a week. Of this, a record-breaking 1,493 pounds of food was collected in just one day, which by itself nearly matches the grand total collected in 2013. Even more impressive, the students managed to donate 18,578 pounds of shoes and clothing to Planet Aid, which is up by almost 8,000 pounds from last year! Each year, the program also collects about 1,000 pounds of electronics recycled through Sunnking.
Recycling Coordinator Amy Kadrie would like to thank everyone involved in making this a successful event, including Residential Life and Facilities staff, students who participated and helped spread the word, and partners Planet Aid and Open Door Mission. “This event always leaves me with such a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that we are doing something truly good. It really hit me this year when a fellow Facilities employee approached us during a food pick-up, eager to help. He explained that for a period of time he used to eat at the Open Door Mission and now wants to give back. This man was living proof that we are actually changing lives, right here in Rochester. Helping to help build a better community is something I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of.”
To complement Move-out Cleanout, Grassroots also held its annual Dump & Run event, which collects furniture, appliances, and general supplies to be reused by students in upcoming years. This year, Dump & Run was very successful and Grassroots is expecting to fare well at their fundraising sale which will take place during Orientation.
Overall, Move-out Cleanout 2015 was very successful and continued its record-breaking trend. This event is held each year to encourage students to spare as much waste as possible from landfills and to instead have their unopened food and gently used clothing donated to people in need. To see more photos of the Move-out Cleanout 2015 event follow the link to our Facebook album.
Written by Mariah Greico, Class of 2018