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Move-Out tents will be open from Dec. 10-Dec. 18
Every year as students prepare to pack up their dorm rooms and head
home for Winter Break, tons of reusable household products get left on
the side of the road or thrown into the dumpster.
This year, the Move-Out Program is offering students an alternative to
throwing away their leftovers. The program, funded by a $10,000 grant
from the University of Idaho Sustanability Center, will be collecting
any reusable household items and unopened food for local charity
organizations.
The program is the brainchild of Esther Ngumbi, public relations chair
for UI’s War on Hunger student group and president of the African
Students Association. Ngumbi worked on a similar project last spring
with the War on Hunger that collected leftover food during finals week.
The group collected around 4,000 pounds of food.
Every year as students prepare to pack up their dorm rooms and head home for Winter Break, tons of reusable household products get left on the side of the road or thrown into the dumpster.
This year, the Move-Out Program is offering students an alternative to throwing away their leftovers. The program, funded by a $10,000 grant from the University of Idaho Sustanability Center, will be collecting any reusable household items and unopened food for local charity organizations.
The program is the brainchild of Esther Ngumbi, public relations chair for UI’s War on Hunger student group and president of the African Students Association. Ngumbi worked on a similar project last spring with the War on Hunger that collected leftover food during finals week. The group collected around 4,000 pounds of food.
“The amount of food stuff we collected was amazing,” Ngumbi said. “As we were collecting the food, we also observed that there were other important things thrown away in the dumpsters.”
So when Ngumbi heard that UISC was asking for grant proposals involving recycling and reusing, she decided to apply. She wanted to create a sustainable campus move-out program where students could donate the non-perishable food and household goods left in their dorm rooms.
“I wanted to find a way to fight local hunger by finding a way that students can donate items they do not need at the end of the semester,” she said. “I wanted to provide students an easy way to donate to less fortunate students and community as well as to a sustainable campus by reducing waste.”
After receiving funding for the program, Ngumbi — along with teammates Genevieve Armstrong, Fafanyo Asiseh, Willow Falcon and Cynthia Mika — purchased 10-by-10 pop-up tents that will be placed around campus beginning Dec. 10. Collection sights will be located near the dumpsters on each Greek Row, by the Wallace Residence Center and Theophilus Tower and also at some of the larger apartment complexes in Moscow, Falcon said.
The group hopes to collect at least 1,500 pounds of food as well as furniture, clothing, books, small appliances and other household items, Ngumbi said.
“We ask students to refuse to throw and insist on reusing,” she said. “Whatever students consider garbage is our resource.”
The food and clothing collected will be donated to area non-profits, including the Nazarene Food Bank and Moscow Food Bank, Falcon said. Household items will be donated to the International Friendship Association’s Household Goods Exchange.
The Household Goods Exchange is in its eighth year at UI and loans household items to students in need for the duration of their time at UI, said International Programs adviser Glen Kauffman.
“It primarily serves international students that come with only a suitcase,” Kauffman said, however American students are welcome to participate in the program also. She estimates that there are around 350-400 students using the program.
The Household Goods Exchange is always in need of donations, especially kitchen tables and chairs and couches, Kauffman said.
So far, response to the Move-Out program has been good, Ngumbi said.
“People have been very positive about the idea,” she said. “Everyone we speak to about our program is impressed and everyone is willing to support us and make the program a success.”
The group has met with the Greek community chairs as well as the Residence Hall manager and gotten a good response, Falcon said.
The tents will be open for donations during daylight hours through Dec. 18. For information about where to find a donation site or to volunteer, contact Falcon at
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Donation boxes will be available inside the residence halls.
“We are appealing to everyone to help,” Ngumi said. “We will need volunteers to make the program success.”
For more information about the Household Goods Exchange, contact Kauffman at
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