Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices - Blogs

April 3, 2015

Laundry Love Ministry

Holy Trinity, Manistee recently completed month 8 of its Laundry Love ministry. We learned about this idea last summer from a video sent out by The Episcopal Church. We hadn’t thought of this as a ministry opportunity until then, but it was immediately apparent to us that this was an unaddressed need in our community.

Our town of approximately 7,000 in rural Northwest Michigan has few people who are homeless but many people live on fixed incomes or get by on low-paying jobs. Of our town's two laundromats, one is located closer to the residents we were looking serve and, as it happened, charges considerably less for their machines and provides free soap for those who need it. The owner of that laundromat thought Laundry Love was a wonderful idea. Working with her we decided the best time to do this would be a four hour window on the fourth Friday afternoon of each month.

Our first month, publicized only by a poster at thee laundromat and a couple of writeups in the newspaper, we served 11 people or "family units." In the months since we've numbered 15 to 20 family units. With the low cost of the machines at this laundromat, we spend around $250 each month. Some of the people who come are regulars, such as the older woman who lives on $715 a month and the family with both parents on disability and four children at home. Others have come only a time or two due to circumstances such as their washer at home being broken or their pipes at home being frozen. (It's been a very cold winter here.) Some people have vehicles they can drive to the laundromat, some catch rides with friends, and some use the very limited bus service in our town. All have been quite grateful to us for doing this and there's been more than a little wonderment that people are willing to help in this way.

The owner of the laundromat, Eve, and her assistant, Wanda, have been beyond helpful in this ministry. Eve definitely performs her own unsung ministry in treating the patrons of her laundromat with respect and kindness. She has built relationships with most of our regulars. During Laundry Love, she is invaluable in helping keep the laundry flowing through the machines in the most efficient manner.

We had learned through previous work with soup kitchens and food pantries to treat our patrons as one would treat a valued customer rather than treating them as supplicants. We have really seen this pay off in our Laundry Love work. As people are met with an attitude that we are there to serve them and it’s just something we want to do, they visibly relax. For the most part, the attitude of working together has caught on and patrons help one another with keeping track of the machines, moving clothes around, and folding large items. A generally friendly atmosphere has developed and this has helped calm things when one of our patrons is having a bad day.

We have learned a few things. Early on we'd tell people to go ahead and use the small machines when there was a long wait for the large ones. That ended after one patron washed 17 single loads, costing us considerably more than several loads in a triple loader would have cost. We now have people wait for the larger washers, limiting how many loads are washed in single washers. Also, the owner was having a problem with people loading washers before we arrived in order to stake a claim on the larger ones. We now have a rule that nothing gets loaded until we have arrived and you’ve put your name on our list. We have also found most people arrive in the first hour or two we are there, with many lined up when we arrive. We keep telling people they’d get to washers a lot faster if they’d come later, but they seem to prefer having their place in line. Fortunately the vast majority wait patiently.

Unlike some Laundry Love projects, we offer only laundry services. There are other agencies in town that offer a wide variety of social services and feeding programs and, being a small town, people in need have ready access to these. These agencies know about Laundry Love and pass our information on to those who use their services.

Overall, we found this a rewarding and joyous ministry and we are very glad to have had our eyes opened to serving in this way. We would strongly recommend that anyone who is looking for a way to help others consider something along the lines of Laundry Love. One of our regulars gave us a card yesterday that let us know this ministry really makes a difference in her life.