LJMU donates 3,000 items to ease city's 'furniture poverty'

LJMU has been helping to end ‘furniture poverty’ for hundreds of local groups.

Schools, charities and grass-roots organisations have taken receipt of classroom, office, social space furniture other equipment recycled from IMMarsh campus, which was recently vacated by the university.

Calderstones’s, St Anne’s and St Mary’s Primary Schools, the Young Persons Advisory Service and women’s support service Blackburne House are among those taking donations.

LJMU worked with Bulky Bob’s for Business, part of the Furniture Resource Centre, and Johnson’s Removal to allocate around 3,000 items to needy groups.

Recycling

“It is great to see the furniture being reused and helping out so many local groups and organisations. The mission of the Furniture Resource Centre is to end furniture poverty. We are delighted to work in partnership with them and Johnsons in recycling and minimising our environmental impact,” said Mark Nevitt, Head of Business and Stakeholder Services.

Johnsons categorised all the furniture and created a booking portal, which Bulky Bob’s have promoted to local groups and the City Council’s mailing list.

LJMU tourism management graduate Andrea Craig, who managed all the reservations, deliveries and collections to 750 organisations, said: “Everything was reserved within the space of a week and there are a lot of happy people out there.

“We had whiteboard, lockers, clocks, fridges, even the board room table!

“We can’t wait to see the LJMU items put to good use.”

The university plans to use the exercise as a model for recycling redundant equipment, like computers and furniture in the future.