Laundry Love has been a thriving ministry for nearly a decade. We have consistently provided cards with funds to wash and dry clothes, laundry supplies, and served pizza and oranges every month to a very stable population of about 70 people with whom we have enjoyed close relationships. The Laundry Love ministry, with your support, has been able to purchase 60 cards and food for the community each month, while our host SpinZone Laundromat generously provides an extra ten laundry cards, and their space for the hours before we are there, when people gather to wait, until the time we wrap up. They also carry the burden of our trash when we are finished with 22 pizzas, countless empty containers, and paper plates. We are so grateful to them.
In the last few months, we have noticed a distinct uptick in the amount of people we are serving. Last month, we provided 80 cards instead of 70, but we had over a 100 people in line and were not able to provide laundry supplies to everyone. We were despondent that we had to leave so many out. We have subsequently received phone calls and messages from people who are still looking for supplies who cannot wait until next month. A quick survey of other laundry services in the area tells us that this is one of only three or four options. This is shocking when we consider that the city is reporting 4-5 thousand unhoused people in the area. The other options are limited in what they allow people to clean, for example no blankets or shoes, or in the hours that they are open. What’s lovely about our model is that the cards we give can be used at any time in any SpinZone. That has allowed people to simply come for dinner without having to do their laundry at the same time. That is very helpful for our community. It also allows us more face time, in the hour we are there, to offer care and friendship.
The other result of this increase in participants is that we are already low on supplies. We need to provide more cards as well as more soap and softener sheets. For this reason, we have decided to run our Laundry Love supply drive again and also allow our community the opportunity to add more to the discretionary fund that our Community Engagement and Advocacy Ministry uses to fill in these kinds of gaps in budgeting.
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Thank you for reaching beyond our walls to serve our community. Laundry Love is held the last Thursday of the month at SpinZone on South Congress Ave. The next meeting will be Thursday, June 29, and all are welcome to participate.
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