By Jennifer Colosimo
In Tullahoma, Tennessee, it can cost a pretty penny to clean clothes. As a community one-quarter of whom live below the poverty line, it’s often a chore families skip or save up for, sometimes choosing between groceries or clean clothes for the month. One small group out of King’s Cross Church in the neighborhood saw that need. They had heard about free laundry services in other areas, and decided to launch something similar in Tullahoma. They set up shop at the B&C Coin Laundry in town and Love by the Load was established. The result has been much more than clean laundry.
Here’s how it works: Once a month for two hours, members of their small group and other volunteers take over a local laundromat, paying for loads of laundry as customers arrive. They provide water, snacks and always cookies. They help with laundry, chat with families, entertain children, connect people to resources they may need and work to build relationships with their neighbors. They’ve been able to partner with the United Way who connected them to Buffalo Wild Wings to provide meals for those in need, as well as Partners for Healing, a local non-profit, to offer medical help and social work services.
“Our small group has done lots of things, but they were always one-time events,” said Jane McChesney. “While we had interaction, we weren’t able to connect with people on a deeper level. We didn’t feel like we were building relationships. Once we decided to do this, it’s just been so fun to get to know the people we serve. We spend two hours a month together, and then we’ll see them out and we’re able to say hi and check in on things. It has helped us be able to see needs besides laundry that are there. And we wouldn’t be able to do that if we weren’t getting to know them on this level.”
At every Love by the Load event, McChesney said they spend about $400 in laundry services, relying on monetary donations from their small group, their church and other people, plus gifts of laundry detergent, laundry baskets, dryer sheets and more. Today, as a recipient of a CBF Ministries Council Grant, they are able to add $2,000 to expand what they’ve been working on for the past year.
Their goals include hosting this event more often than once a month, increasing the products and services they can offer at the laundromat, recruiting more volunteers to help with laundry and connecting individuals to more resources in the community. They’ll also be able to advertise what they’re doing to drum up more community interest and support. All of this supports their main goal of building relationships.
“Helping in the community is just part of who we are,” said McChesney, nodding to not only her small group, but to King’s Cross Church. “Our goal was to find a way to help and build relationships with the people we serve. This is a vehicle for our church to meet the physical needs of our community while getting to know the people here and, if it can happen, sharing Christ.”
That’s what is most important to this trio of volunteers and their small group. The relationship is where the biggest impact happens; clean linens are just a perk.
“The laundromat is a launchpad for other ways to minister to the community that we wouldn’t know about otherwise,” McChesney reiterated. “We know about their needs because we’ve built a relationship with them. And who doesn’t love having a connection with someone else? Who doesn’t love knowing there’s someone who cares about them?”
Because of the expense of doing laundry, the small group has seen that many people won’t even accept clothing donations or hand-me-downs. McChesney has had women come in and cry because they won’t have to choose between buying food for their family or doing laundry that month.
“We’re loving people where they are. Of course, we are helping with laundry, but we’re also talking to people, praying with them; and now when the same people come in, they’re like old friends,” said McChesney. “I want people to recognize the difference you can make when you have no expectation of what’s going to happen. The Lord will be there to guide it, to show and lead the way. And then whatever comes out is wonderful.”
Word is spreading. Donations are coming from other churches now and the volunteer band has expanded beyond King’s Cross. But the need grows every month, and McChesney said they can’t wait to be able to do more. “The Lord has his hand on this. To make even the smallest difference in their lives—even through just clean clothes—is a big deal to them, and therefore us. We are so grateful to have received this grant. Thinking about the new possibilities is very exciting.”