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Flint Church To Open Laundry Facility In Basement To Help Families In Need

June 22, 2022

The pastor of Good Church in Flint, Michigan is opening a laundry facility in the church basement to help the less fortunate.

Pastor Leo Robinson / Credit: FlintBeat.com

Pastor Leo Robinson spent time addressing the needs of his community during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that many were in need of laundry services.

"We started doing food because everybody during COVID was relying on the schools for food. So we started going into these areas to offer dinner and they were like, 'Food is great, but we really need a place to do our laundry'," Robinson told Flint Beat.

"There's no laundromat in a four-mile radius. Over 75 percent of our people in this area depend on public transportation, so you can only imagine taking all of your clothes, getting on the MTA to go to the laundromat to sit for three or four hours to do your laundry, and then come back on that bus route. That's taking up most of your day."

Credit: FlintBeat.com

In an effort to help all residents, not just Good Church members,  Robinson and his wife set to work on building a laundry facility in the church's basement.

Robinson mentioned there are studies connecting limited access to clean clothes to lowered school attendance, too.

"In our three-mile radius, we have Flint schools, Beecher schools, and also Kearsley schools. And all three schools are struggling with absenteeism… All of them say a lot of the kids aren't coming because of their dirty clothes," he said. "One counselor said that she takes kids' clothes home herself to wash them. So I know it's a big deal."

Robinson currently has 8 machines, thanks to a donation of four washers and four dryers from Whirlpool, but he already knows "it's not going to be enough".

He and his wife calculated that between the number of machines and the facility's estimated hours of operation, having four washers and four dryers would equate to supporting a little over 100 families' laundry needs per week.

Robinson is hopeful to open Good Laundry by the end of June, but said he'd settle for August before students return to school.

Learn more on the church's website. Make a donation to Good Laundry here.