Community West Foundation Grantee Spotlight… Laundry Love: Making a Difference One Washload at a Time

For many of us, laundry is a chore, a household-must-do and always on the horizon. Imagine if you couldn’t afford to wash your clothes on a regular basis? Imagine if you had to choose between paying for groceries or washing your clothes? Unfortunately, many people in our community are faced with this tough decision.

For Janice Snyder, who has spent the past 30 years in Lutheran Ministry, this was unacceptable. She discovered Laundry Love, a national program that helps people in need afford clean clothes. She first read about the program in a religious magazine and decided to bring it to her congregation at Messiah Lutheran Church and School, located in Fairview Park.

“Everyone needs to feel they are important, heard, and loved” comments Janice when we talked about her program over the phone. The last Thursday of every month at Leo’s Laundromat in Fairview Park, Janice and a group of volunteers assemble for more of a family gathering than an outreach program. They pay for people’s laundry, provide a free casual meal, and offer free books to the kids from 6-8 p.m.

When asked who gets their laundry cost covered, Janice emphatically replied, “Everybody!” It turns out, they kindly ask everyone that comes through the doors during their program if their group can cover their cost. Some guests decline saying, they have the means to pay. Others are shocked by receiving an unexpected blessing with statements like, “Thank you! Nothing good ever happens to me.”

The word has gotten out. A homeless woman heard about the program and drove over in the car where she was living to get to the laundromat. She cried when she was able to finally wash her coat.

Janice coordinates all the fundraising for the program on her own and recently received a grant from Community West Foundation. She also receives donations from several local restaurants to help provide meals along with the laundry service. “We build relationships from the very beginning,” Janice said. “We are making friends with our neighbors, in real time.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has set Laundry Love: Messiah back a bit. They haven’t been able to hold community meals in a couple months, but they have teamed up with the laundromat management to still provide free laundry for those in need. To fill the gap, Janice has used part of the Community West Foundation grant to create a Free Little Pantry installed on the Messiah campus to provide discreet access to non-perishable food items to people in need.

Janice hopes to expand the program once the social distancing rules are lifted. “I’d like to have pop-up’s in other areas with the additional funds we’ve been granted,” Janice explained. “I would be happy to share what we’ve being doing the past three and a half years so that other groups can hold their own Laundry Love events. We have plans in the works to expand the laundromat into a sort of community center where people can register to vote and receive free health checks.”

 

Janice is the Admission Coordinator at Messiah Lutheran School and is an active servant to the community through her ministry at Messiah Lutheran Church. Her husband, Mike, is busy hosting Cleveland’s Morning News with Wills and Snyder on WTAM, but still finds time to support his wife’s ministry. The couple lives in Lakewood, has three adult children and a 2-month-old granddaughter.

For more details on the Laundry Love program, visit: www.messiahchurchfairview.org/CommunityMinistry or search Laundry Love: Messiah Fairview Park on Facebook.

-by Maria Estes