'Laundry Love' program helps people in need afford clean clothes

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Chris Serico TODAY

14 hours ago

Food and shelter are basic needs, but clean clothes can mean a renewed level of self-respect for the underprivileged.

Laundry Love, a charity based in Portland, Oregon, aims to help people who are struggling financially by partnering with local laundromats to offer free laundry services. According to Laundry Loves national director, Greg Russinger, it all began in 2002, when he and his friends offered to help a homeless man named Eric, a.k.a. T-Bone, in Ventura, California.

Courtesy of Laundry Love

In addition to providing a service, Laundry Love aims to make weekly and monthly events a social experience.

He just said, If I had clean clothes, I think people would treat me as a human being, Russinger told TODAY.com.

Russinger and fellow volunteers found a local laundromat and provided the money and supplies to wash the clothes of T-Bone and other community members in need. The Ventura branch of Laundry Love has remained active ever since.

In the years that followed, Laundry Love has provided an estimated 450,000 loads of laundry to about 300,000 people, according to Russinger. Beneficiaries include the jobless, the homeless, immigrants, victims of natural disasters and others who find themselves financially strapped.

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'Laundry Love' program helps people in need afford clean clothes