Video summary
The Leave Green Program for 2026 is a sustainability initiative launched by University Housing to facilitate easy donation of student belongings during move-out season through large cardboard boxes placed in dorm hallways. This effort partners with local nonprofits such as Habitat for Humanity Restore and Potter's House, along with the Full Circle Food Pantry, to ensure that items donated by students are redirected to worthy causes rather than ending up in landfills. The program represents a significant team effort involving administrative staff, moving crews, hall directors, and resident assistants who work together to promote green practices and help students make positive decisions about their possessions before leaving campus.
For Habitat for Humanity Restore, the donations collected during Leave Green constitute their largest annual donation drive of the year, yielding over 40 pallets of items that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to sell in thrift stores. While these organizations typically operate with small staffs and face logistical challenges processing such a massive volume of goods within three to four months, they utilize multiple trucks running six days a week to collect everything from furniture and electronics to clothing, which is then sorted for resale or donated to local shelters. All proceeds generated from the sale of these items remain entirely within the community, funding essential local ministries including preschool programs, youth leadership development, and various other services in Northwest Arkansas.
The Full Circle Food Pantry also plays a vital role in this initiative, relying heavily on Leave Green donations to stock their shelves for the summer months when regular contributions may fluctuate. Last year alone, they received over 5,000 items through this partnership, which supports an average of 400 monthly visits from students, faculty, and staff who can access pantry resources twice a week. Beyond standard food supplies, the program has collected unique and sometimes humorous donations like locked safes with unknown contents or pickled baby sharks in jars, highlighting the diverse range of household goods that students are willing to pass on for community benefit.
Ultimately, the Leave Green initiative serves as a crucial bridge between graduating students and local social services, ensuring that unwanted items find new homes while keeping financial resources within the Fateville area. By encouraging residents to drop off clothing, dishes, furniture, electronics, and other miscellaneous household goods in the provided boxes during move-out weeks, University Housing demonstrates its commitment to environmental responsibility and community support. This collaborative approach not only reduces waste but also strengthens local networks by connecting students with organizations that directly impact families and youth throughout the region every year.
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You'll probably notice [music] large
cardboard boxes in the halls during the
last weeks of class. These are part of
the leave green initiative. During
moveout, University Housing works
[music] with area nonprofits to make it
easier for you to donate items to a
worthy cause.
[music] University Housing has joined
with Habitat for Humanity and Potter's
House to aid in the sustainable effort
for the local Fateville community.
Hi, I'm Felicia Peron. I'm an assistant
director for administrative services and
I'm part of the moveout planning team
and we have been doing leave green for a
number of years [music] um and have been
working with our local nonprofits
um in in particular Habitat for Humanity
Restore [music] as well as Potter's
House. And we've also partnered with uh
the campus's [music] uh food pantry, the
full circle food pantry. And so um our
staff really do what we can to help
support and promote people moving out in
a green way. Um being able to give these
items that our students are donating to
local agencies so they benefit our
community is so important. And it also
helps us keep stuff out of the landfill.
And so our staff, you know, that's stuff
we're committed to. [music]
And our our our hit team, our moving
crew, they do a fantastic job being a
partner and, you know, our ISA staff,
our hall directors, our RAS. It's a team
effort, you know, in terms of helping
promote Leave Green and helping students
uh make good decisions about donating
items that can be used by others. And so
it's just something we're happy to be a
part of and proud to be a part of is to
know that we're trying to do what we can
to make a difference.
Leave green is important to Habitat for
Humanity and the restores [music]
because um the donations brought in from
the halls uh bring in [music]
is our biggest donation of the year. um
we end up with over 40 pallets of
donated um items and products that we
normally wouldn't be able to sell
[music] in thrift stores. These are
really nice items and it even comes down
to clothing. And although the restores
don't sell clothing, we [music] do um
donate those back to women shelters in
our local areas. So it impacts more than
just Habitat. It also impacts other um
local communities and organizations
throughout the year. We do have donation
um programs set up, but leave green is
our largest. The restores run off of
pretty skeleton crews, about 8 to 10
employees, and we do end up with so many
donations that it takes us [music] about
3 or 4 months to end up pricing and
going through them all. Um we run two
trucks [music] 6 days a week on five or
six trips each. The truck gets filled to
the brim every single time. and um the
truck having to go through these oneways
everywhere and just everyone moving out
at the same time. Um leave green will is
our most challenging um donation program
that we do have set, but it is so worth
it in the end because we do get to um
[music] reuse and resell so many items.
So every year we are so thankful that we
are [music] able to be a part of the
leave green initiative on campus. And so
we bring a few of our box trucks on
campus and get a bunch of volunteers and
employees with us and just go around to
the dorm rooms to collect all the items
as students are able to leave us. Um
those also get sent to our processing
center to be divided across our
Fagetville, Springdale, and Sylum Spring
stores as well. And all of the money
that we make from the sales of those uh
items get sent to our program. So we
have a preschool program, a small group
program, leadership development for
youth, and just a lot of ministries for
Northwest Arkansas. So everything that
gets donated to us stays local and the
money goes back to support local
ministries.
>> Hi, my name is Alana and I am the food
drives coordinator for the Full Circle
Food Pantry. I'm Delaney Ferris Dyer and
I'm the staff adviser for the pantry
[music] and we are so excited that
housing has allowed us to partner with
them for this leave green initiative. Um
it helps us stock our pantry for the
first half of the summer months and last
year we were able to receive over 5,000
items. Our pantry on average has about
400 visits per month. So receiving these
donations from housing is super vital to
our operations. We look forward to
everything we get and students are
really excited to access the pantry.
students, faculty, and staff can utilize
[music] the pantry twice a week. And
they're really excited about lead green
donations because we get such a variety
of items from campus uh campus halls.
And so we're looking forward to this
year and seeing what all what all we're
able to get.
Our most interesting donations that
we've gotten from Leave Green to [music]
me are locked safes. You never know
what's in them and we can't open them.
[music] And I just think there's
something very interesting about that. I
think one of the most interesting
donations I can think of is we once
[music] got this pickled like baby shark
in a jar. Um it's very unique, very
interesting. Um but yeah, we get to see
a lot of really cool things and um some
[music] funny things sometimes as well.
Please consider passing on your unwanted
items to the leave green initiative by
dropping them off in the cardboard
boxes.
Suggested donations include clothing,
furniture, electronics, dishes, and
other miscellaneous household items.
[music]