When John Stevens first came to John Muir Middle School three years ago, the computers in the lab were so old that they still ran on Windows 3.1. The computers were not even equipped with CD-ROMs.

Stevens turned to the school district and local businesses to ask for donations of computers so the students could use equipment that was not so obsolete.

“I spent time to e-mailing businesses to get them to donate some computers,” said Stevens. “I got nothing except a few printers.”

At the time, Stevens was a graduate student in the instructional technology program at SF State. One of his fellow classmates told him about a program on campus where he could get some surplus computers for his class at John Muir Middle School .

Stevens got some Macintoshes and 17-inch monitors. Stevens’ students used the computers to create their own Web site, learning PhotoShop, Flash, animation and more. Knowing that he still needed better computers, Stevens took 11 more Macs and four monitors back in August. Two-thirds of the 30 computers came from SF State.

Every year the university throws away tons of stuff, from just trash to surplus equipment. Observing the fact that many materials thrown away were still perfectly usable, students in the late 1980s decided to start a program that would put those old chairs, desks and electronic machines to use. They created the 'SWAP' Shop, or Surplus With A Purpose.

The SWAP Shop is located at the basement of Burk Hall where steel pipes run through the offices with the sounds of water running through them constantly. It has become a bridge between the university and the outside community. It helps to give away the old things that the university no longer needs to nonprofit organizations throughout the Bay Area.

The new San Bruno-based Kainga Tonga U.S.A. office, an organization that provides help to the Tongan community throughout the Bay Area, has taken full advantage of the SWAP Shop. The new office will also provide after-school tutoring for Tongan students.

Since the organization is nonprofit, it does not have the money to get all new computers and electronic machines, explained Ane Pasina, the secretary of Kainga Tonga U.S.A. She added the organization has saved a lot of money because of the help of the SWAP Shop. Ane and her husband, Sonny Pasina, first heard about the SWAP Shop from Dr. Halaevalu Vakalahi from SF State.

After making contacts with the SWAP Shop, they picked up a desk, a chair, computers, a coffee maker, a television, a VCR and a projector from the shop at their first visit. They came back a week later and picked up a both a color ink-jet and a laser printer, a copier and a rug.

“The computers are part for tutoring the students and also for administrative tasks at the new office,” said Ane.

It’s not just nonprofit organizations that benefited from the existence of the SWAP Shop; many schools also enlist the help of it, said Jeremy Whitaker, a student assistant who works at the SWAP Shop.

The San Francisco Christian School took some desks and chairs earlier this semester, according to Whitaker. He added that professors and other faculty members from the university can also take things from the SWAP Shop. “All items are for nonprofits,” he said. “It’s not for personal use. The students can not just come in here and take something. They are not for sale either.”

The program helps to lower the amount of waste created by the campus. The SWAP Shop has diverted over 81,000 pounds of equipments and furniture from landfills since the beginning of the school year, said Richard Garbarino, manager of the SWAP Shop.

Non-reusable items like monitors, were to be recycled so no hazardous materials would leak out and contaminate the environment, said Whitaker.