Cal Poly students in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences Department have donated 10,000 lbs of mandarin oranges to the SLO Food Bank.
Typically, several students are responsible for growing, processing and selling fruits and vegetables, but to help the local community during the coronavirus pandemic, the department donated fresh produce to the food bank, according to a university spokesperson.
"We really want to help out the community as much as we can during this time of need, so we're trying to make none of it go to waste," said Dan Chesini, plant science operations manager at Cal Poly.
The department hired a labor crew to harvest all of the mandarin oranges at once.
They store the produce in coolers and have been donating 3,000 to 4,000 lbs of mandarins each week to the food bank.
