Soap and Hope: The ‘Laundry Project’ helps low-income families wash clothes for free

TAMPA, Fla. - With many businesses having to close their doors, one business opened theirs to help families in need.

Current Initiatives, the city of Tampa, Locale Church and Big Wash teamed up to pay for 20 families to do their laundry at Big Wash laundromat. Current Initiatives supplied all the soap and paid the laundry fees.

The Laundry Project is a program designed to help offset financial challenges for low-income families in the area.

Jason Sowell, the president of Current Initiatives, said it’s very important to try to give people hope.

“A lot of families are choosing between buying groceries and washing their kids' clothes this week,” Sowell explained. “For a lot of them, what this means is not having to make that choice.”

The event helped 20 pre-registered families. Each family selected a time to do their wash so there wouldn’t be a crowd.

Everyone on site used hand sanitizer and the volunteers wore gloves. The washers and dryers were also wiped down with sanitizer often to make sure the environment was safe for the families.

Jason Sowell said they did 175 to 225 loads of laundry for the 20 families.

He explained, “Just the dignity of being able to put on fresh clothes every day, to sleep in clean sheets, to use clean towels. Just the mental shift that gives us and to them, especially when there is a lot of fear going on, a lot of crazy stuff going on, putting us in a positive mood. So it feels good knowing we can help in that small way.”

Families that would like to pre-register for the next event can log onto laundrybycurrent.org for all of the details. There are requirements to register for this program.