Geography instructor Joe Hasty asked about 200 community college students in his five sections to donate their used textbooks at the end of the semester. Financially needy students in his classes the following semester can use the books for free, while students who can afford the books are asked to contribute a minimum of 10 cans of food to "rent" a used textbook for the semester. So far, after this semester, about 100 students have turned in their textbooks titled Geosystems and An Introduction to Human Geography.

And over the past year, WVC students have donated almost a ton of food—1,057 pounds to be exact—to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties through the program.

"This innovative idea benefits the community and the students," said Dr. Robert Jensen, WVC interim president. "I applaud instructor Hasty for creating a grass-roots campaign that benefits the college and the community, while teaching students the value of giving."

Two years ago, Hasty came up with the idea after students gave him about 30 books after the first semester, and he had to do something with them. New textbooks for Hasty's class cost about $100, but the school's bookstore, which is owned by Barnes & Noble, only buys them back for about $25­$30.

"The whole system doesn't seem right," said Hasty, adding the bookstore then resells the used books the following term for a marked-up price of $65­$75.

"I couldn't give [the books] all away," said Hasty. "So I came up with this project."

If the bookstore was owned by the school, Hasty said he wouldn't have as much of a problem with the marked-up prices. But currently he doesn't know where the profits go.

Hasty, who teaches physical and cultural geography classes, said his students load the cans of food into his truck with the help of his father. They then deliver them to the food bank at the start of each semester—in September and February—which coincides with the food bank's traditionally slow times.

"The donations arrive at times when people are not generally thinking about donating to the food bank, which makes it doubly important," said Dave Sandretto, executive director of the food bank.

Hasty said the book drive works on "the honor system," so if students genuinely need textbooks that they can't afford to buy, they can come talk to him. With rising community college tuition and textbook costs, the program has been a booming success. Students line up outside Hasty's office on the mornings of the exchanges of cans for books.

"By the end of the first day, my office was so full of food I had to move my office hours to the hallway," said Hasty, laughing. "It totally surprised me. It made me feel good that so many students wanted to do good and participate in a program like this."

Hasty is hoping to talk to community service groups such as Lions or Rotary clubs that might be willing to help deliver the food and distribute books. Hasty is a 1990 graduate of Los Gatos High School, and his parents still live in Monte Sereno, so West Valley College feels like home to him.

Since his students study the uneven distribution of wealth in his courses, Hasty said the food drive connects to his curriculum as well as to community giving.

"We are a community college, and I like the aspect of 'community' in a community college," Hasty said.

The only drawback to the effort is that Hasty is deterred from changing his textbooks to more current editions as often as he'd like. But because he brings cutting-edge research into the classroom through his lectures, Hasty said the textbooks are just used for fundamentals. Given recent cutbacks to education, Hasty said creative solutions and finding additional resources are important to most educators.