Emory's Don't Dump It – Donate It program collected 20,700 pounds of clothing, furniture, small household items, and food to donate to charitable organizations this year.
 

"The total donated was much higher this year — more than double," says Dena Keeler, assistant director of auxiliary services in Campus Services.
 

The program takes items that students, in particular, won't take with them when they move out of the residence halls and other living quarters at the end of the academic year. "Donations are nearly 100 percent from Housing," Keeler says. Nothing was landfilled; everything was repurposed, she notes.

This year's donations supported these organizations:

• American Kidney Fund, which helps dialysis patients with the costs associated with treating kidney failure. In 2011, nearly 90,000 people — almost one out of every four dialysis patients in the United States — received assistance from the American Kidney Fund for health insurance premiums and other treatment expenses.
• Bread of Life Ministries, which provides clothing, furniture, household items and food to impoverished families in the Atlanta area.
• International Refugee Council, which responds to international humanitarian crises.
• The Haven House, which provides safe haven for battered women and children in the McDonough area.  Collected donations were sold to provide funds for this organization, Keeler says. 

In the past, donations have been repurposed or sold to help a variety of efforts, including tsunami relief in Japan, Refugee Resettlement Services of Atlanta and tornado victims in the Southeast. 

When the students move in for fall semester, "we don't get anything — except a lot of cardboard!" Keeler says.