During the Move-Out Donation program at UW-Green Bay, about 6,000 lbs of material were donated for a good cause. Goods varied from food, clothes, books, and small furniture to other items typically found in a dorm room. Thanks to the cooperation with St. Vincent de Paul, students at UW-Green Bay could drop off the goods in their residence halls, from where all donations were picked up in bulk at the end of the spring term.
Jeremy Bartels, Warehouse Manager at St. Vincent de Paul: “All donations are helpful but the ones we get in from college students usually are more in line of what we are in the most need of. Students have very limited space so the items they have tend to be more of a necessity and not just purely decoration.”
Among the donated goods were about 35 cubic feet of non-perishable food packages. That is more than the total volume of a large double-door household fridge. All of these items went to help clients at “Paul’s Pantry”, a community initiative founded in 1984 to help families in need fight hunger.
Jeremy Bartels, “We offer tangible assistance to those in need in Brown County on a person-to-person basis. Proceeds from all donations stay local.”
Both the University and St. Vincent de Paul hope to be offering the same program again in the 2015-16 academic year. Meanwhile, all those who will be coming back to campus in the fall are invited to take a look at our suggestions for Move-In Day at www.uwgb.edu/sustainability/tools/moving.asp.
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About St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store
“St. Vincent de Paul stores recycles your donated items for reuse in the community. Through your generous donations, our stores are able to provide household goods, clothing, furniture and other necessities for free to those in need. All store sales go directly to funding the Society’s many charitable programs and all donations of merchandise are tax-deductible. The store processes vouchers given to the needy by our Personal Service Center and by the many conference volunteers throughout Green Bay.”
www.svdpgb.org
About Paul’s Pantry
“Paul’s Pantry was started as a result of a need to care for hungry people in the community who are unable to purchase enough food for their family as a result of their meager or no incomes. Paul’s Pantry though, is more than just an emergency food pantry. Its goal is to provide a family with enough food every week, for as long as needed, so that they may use their food dollars for shelter, utilities and other necessities, and avoid becoming homeless.”
www.paulspantry.org
Photo, quotes and citations courtesy of St. Vincent de Paul.