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June 18, 2009
Drop & Go Program Turns Discarded Items into Charitable Donations
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CONTACTS:
Chris Mosier, Residence Director, (212) 774-0744 / cmosier@mmm.edu
Manny Romero, Director of Communications & Publications,
(212) 517-0451 / mromero@mmm.edu
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MMC's Drop & Go Program donated a total of 360 bags of clothing and household items to local charities. Other items included food and books.
| (New York, NY) The Drop & Go Program at Marymount Manhattan College recently donated a total of 360 bags of clothing and household items: 300 bags were picked up by The Salvation Army and 60 bags were hand-delivered to Goodwill and Housing Works.
Chris Mosier, an MMC residence director, started the Drop & Go donation program at the 55th Street Residence Hall in the spring of 2006. Residence Life estimates that residents of the 55th Street Hall discard enough items to cover a football field each year, many of which are in good condition and all of which were placed in a landfill rather than reused. Mosier initiated Drop & Go to make donating easy and accessible for students, who are invited to drop off items in the student lounge, which are then bagged and donated to local charities.
Through the program 50 books, along with a donation of more than 200 additional books that were collected throughout the year, will be donated to New York Public Library, Housing Works Used Books Café (which raises money to provide housing, support, and services to people living with HIV and AIDS), and Prisoners’ Reading Encouragement Project (PREP), a program that distributes materials to adult and juvenile prison libraries in New York State.
The Drop & Go Program also collected two large bins of food that were hand-delivered to the food bank at the Programs for the Homeless and Hungry, located at 1st Avenue between 55th and 56th streets.
“I unloaded the first bin of food onto their shelves, which went from literally empty to full within minutes,” said Mosier, who delivered the collected items by walking and taking multiple bicycle trips. “The second bin of food will be delivered on June 19. The coordinator of the food bank was extremely grateful and said she looks forward to our arrival each year. She also said the current economy has generated a bigger need for donations.”
In addition, multiple bags of open food items were delivered on a “midnight run” to a group of homeless individuals outside of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, located at 54th Street at Lexington Avenue. Pillows, blankets, bedrolls, and toiletries were also delivered to this location.
Mosier estimates that as many as 150 bags of clothing and other items were “swapped” through the program. Before the items were donated, residents had the opportunity to “shop” in the Drop & Go area, which was housed on the 32nd floor lounge of 55th Street. Many residents furnished new apartments with appliances and household items, and many others exchanged their wardrobes, allowing all of the items to be reused in some capacity.
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