For the Love of Laundry
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Imagine going to a job interview — or even just living day-to-day — in clothes that haven’t been washed in weeks.
In a budget that barely covers three nutritious meals and a safe place to spend the night, laundry suddenly seems like a less important priority. But if you ask social entrepreneur Melissa Power, clean clothes are essential.
“I feel like it’s a basic need that really often gets forgotten,” she says. “It’s dignity, it’s self esteem. You can have a food bank to get food and somewhere (to go) for shelter, but if your cloths are not clean, where do you get the confidence to go to a job interview? It really is a basic need. It really needs to be addressed in our community.”
Power is attempting to address that need through her new social enterprise For the Love of Laundry. Over the past year, Power has been selling homemade, all-natural laundry products and using additional proceeds from sponsors to host free events at laundromats across London.
Through 10 of these events in 2015, Power says over 500 people took advantage of around 3,500 free loads of laundry worth roughly $12,000. She spreads the word about her social enterprise primarily through social media and by contacting local shelters that can connect her to Londoners who will benefit from the service.
“Every agency that I talk to about what I’m doing (says), ‘you know what, this is such a need in our community and nobody’s touched on it.’ It’s really given me more drive to keep going and keep doing what I need to do. I’ve had people contact me from other cities. I know that it’s something that can go way beyond just London.”
Power says she began making her own laundry products to help her family save money five years ago, but the seed of her idea was planted years before. Once a single mother who struggled to make ends meet, Power is well aware of the sacrifices it takes to raise a child with one income.
“A lot of the time, things had to be pushed to the side and things would have to wait month after month,” Power says. “Laundry was often one of them.
“Now that I’m in a place where I’m capable of giving back, it’s something that’s always stuck with me. I really just wanted to make a difference for low-income families, single moms, homeless individuals that struggle with the dignity of clean clothes. That’s our mission: dignity through clean clothes. That’s what we’re hoping to provide the people who come out to our events.”
Power officially launched For the Love of Laundry January 27. The event took place at Pathways Skill Development on Clarence Street.
Pathways, one of Power’s partners, has provided her with enough production space to be able to move the operation out of her kitchen and For the Love of Laundry has also been given a $10,000 loan from VERGE Capital’s new Social Enterprise Loan Fund. Powers said the loan will help her launch a new website, produce a large amount of inventory, and allow her to attend courses about the financial side of running a business.
“I feel like a lot of social entrepreneurs start out with the mind frame of just the mission,” Power says. “I have no business background whatsoever, so it has been a huge learning curve.”
But that hasn’t stopped Power from thinking big. Her ultimate goal is to own a laundromat where she can hire staff and host events herself, but in the meantime, she’ll continue to work on spreading the word about the necessity of clean clothes.
“My main goal is to really branch out as much as I can,” Power says. “Some people know what we do, but a lot of people in London still don’t. I just really want the word to get out in the community that there is a service available for people to get the hand that they need.”
Chris.montanini@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @LondonerChris