“Free Store” initiative to begin in May

Jillian Beaster ’28
beasterjro@lakeforest.edu
News Editor

Starting this May, Professor Siobhan Moroney’s “Free Store” initiative will be underway. Moroney’s vision entails a space where students can donate items they no longer need, to allow for students to shop second-hand on campus for free. 

“Every May for the last 25 years [I have been] dumpster diving in college dumpsters, and I live better because of that, and I sent two kids off to college without buying a single thing…every year I think, why do we have so much waste?” Moroney said. “We have a lot of students who need things… so we’re trying to think about ways to have fewer packages, less waste, less landfill and provide students with things that they need.”

The “Free Store” will accept items varying from clothes, canned goods, school supplies, used shampoo, appliances and more. While these items are important, Moroney expresses that even non-necessities are encouraged.

“It is partly the stuff that students need…but also students hang sparkly lights and they and they do jigsaw puzzles, and art supplies and office supplies and some clothing and tchotchkes and decor…” Moroney said. “We don’t live in a college town; students don’t have access to thrift stores and secondhand stores.”

A main goal of Moroney’s vision is to promote sustainability on campus while also caring for students. 

“[Moroney] treats [this project] like her baby,” said Zofia Marjanska, a student member of the Sustainability Committee. “At my high school [in Europe], we did have a free store as well… that’s why I really liked Professor Moroney’s idea. And yes, that’s why it spoke to me that much, because I saw how effective that was in reducing waste.”

Other than reducing waste, Moroney and Marjanska emphasize additional values of this initiative. 

“We want to make a kind of like a non-judgmental and welcoming space,” Marjanska said. “We really want to focus on inclusion and actually serving the needs of the student body to the best of our abilities.”

Last spring, Moroney launched a pilot program with Mike Raymond, Associate Director of Athletics, to collect items from students at the end of the semester and siphon through what could be reused. They made four categories: food, winter apparel, bedding and appliances. 

“When we collected stuff in May, washed the linens and sorted things, we opened it up to the campus altogether and [advertised a] free store pop-up… but then we had to clear it out for summer camp,” Moroney said. “We [didn’t] have a permanent place to store it.”

With approval from Interim Vice-President Ed Whipple, the “FreeStore” will operate out of a student apartment building on South Campus later this May. 

Moroney hopes to keep  the store  open 40 hours per week to make it as accessible as possible. 

“It’s important that it be open at times when students can access it, and it’s important that it be open on weekends,” Moroney said. 

Though it will not be open for the spring semester, Moroney and Marjanska encourage students to start thinking and talking about the store, as well as considering donations.

“Everyone thinks this is a great idea and wants to support it. It’s just been a question of, okay, getting it kicked into getting it kicked into gear,” Moroney said. “I think the student support is going to be really, really high.”