The University of the Pacific has donated 100 extra-long twin beds along with 20 desks, dressers, and chairs to a temporary emergency shelter in Manteca.
The university said they were renovating the John Ballantyne residence hall on the Stockton campus and decided to donate the furniture to an organization in need.
“I learned that the furniture would be disposed of and I asked the institution ‘Can we donate it’,” said Josh O’Connor, Executive director of student life at Pacific. “One of my colleagues, Shirley, actually attended one of these city hall meetings and proposed that we would like to donate 100 beds and desks and chairs and dressers to the homeless shelter and that’s how this connection was actually made.”
Jessica Bilecki, Pacific’s sustainability director, said the donation was able to prevent waste from being disposed into landfills.
The donation to the shelter diverted 4,800 pounds of waste from the landfill, the university said in a press release.
According to Pacific, the furniture will be moved to a new homeless shelter in Manteca when the building is completed and opened next year.
“We’re just really happy that we were able to make this all work,” said O’Connor. “We really wanted to see the furniture go to an organization that really needed it.”
Inner City Action is a faith-based outreach that provides resource services to the under severed community.
Frank Saldana, Inner City Action Founder and President, said the donation would help the shelter because the more money they are able to save the more money could go towards funding the project.
He said about fifteen people from the outreach center came to help with the hauling of furniture.
