When a Washing Machine Becomes a School Supply

Sep 3

4 min read

Sometimes changing someone’s life doesn’t require an enormous program. Sometimes it starts with a washing machine.

Yesterday, Held by Love shared the story of Principal Akbar Cook, who discovered that some students at his Newark high school were missing class because they did not have clean clothes and were being bullied because of it.

It would be comforting to believe his school was an unusual case. It wasn’t.

Across America, children are walking into classrooms carrying burdens that may never appear on a report card. And sometimes they are not walking into those classrooms at all—not because they do not care about education, and not because their families do not care, but because something as basic as clean clothing has become a barrier.

A Problem Big Enough to Reach Across America

Whirlpool created its Care Counts™ Laundry Program in 2015 around a remarkably simple idea: put washers and dryers inside schools where children are struggling with attendance and do not always have reliable access to clean clothing.

Working with schools and Teach For America, the program identifies students who may benefit and provides families with access to laundry equipment right there at school.

Then they watched what happened.

Whirlpool reports that during the 2022–23 school year, 80% of participating high-risk students increased their attendance. The average increase was equivalent to 16 additional days of school over a full academic year, and more than 60% were no longer considered at risk for chronic absenteeism by the end of that school year.

Sixteen days.

Think about what a child can learn in sixteen days. Sixteen more mornings with a teacher. Sixteen more opportunities to understand multiplication, read another chapter, participate in science class, eat a school lunch, laugh with a friend or hear an adult say, “I’m glad you’re here today.”

And what helped make those days possible? Laundry.

That’s Why We Have to Stop Calling Basic Needs “Little Things”

There is a dangerous habit in the way we sometimes talk about poverty. We separate people’s needs into things we consider important and things we consider small.

Housing is important. Food is important. Medical care is important. But laundry? A shower? Transportation? A replacement ID? Those can sound like little problems—until you don’t have them.

Imagine being twelve years old and knowing your shirt smells. Imagine knowing the other children notice. Imagine sitting on the edge of your bed in the morning trying to decide whether facing their laughter is worse than missing another day of school.

Suddenly, laundry isn’t a little thing at all. It’s the thing standing between you and the classroom.

And This Is Happening in Georgia

This isn’t only a story about distant communities. According to Whirlpool’s Care Counts program statistics, participating schools include schools in Georgia.

That matters to us. Held by Love was born here in Northwest Georgia, and our Love Loads program is being built around the same basic understanding: laundry is a necessity, not a luxury.

A parent shouldn’t have to choose between washing the children’s clothes and putting gasoline in the car. Someone experiencing homelessness shouldn’t lose an employment opportunity because they could not afford to wash the clothes they own. A child shouldn’t miss school because their family does not have reliable access to laundry.

One Load Can Carry More Than Clothes

When Held by Love talks about Love Loads, we’re not really talking about washing machines. We’re talking about what happens after the washing machine stops.

A child goes back to school. Someone walks confidently into an interview. A parent sends their children out the door without worrying they will be embarrassed. A person experiencing homelessness gets to put on something clean. Someone who has spent the week feeling invisible is reminded that their dignity matters to somebody.

That’s what we’re trying to protect.

Whirlpool reports that the Care Counts program has given tens of thousands of students access to laundry. Those aren’t laundry problems. They’re children.

What Changed in the Real World?

That’s a question Held by Love believes every effort to help people should eventually have to answer.

Not: How impressive did the program sound? Not: How beautiful was the campaign? But: What changed for another human being because someone showed up?

In Care Counts schools, children got clean clothes. Attendance improved. Some students who were at risk of chronic absenteeism were no longer in that category.

That’s change we can understand. And that’s the kind of change we want Love Loads to create here at home.

We may not be able to remove every obstacle facing a struggling family. But perhaps that’s the wrong standard.

Maybe community doesn’t begin by asking whether we can solve someone’s entire life. Maybe it begins by asking: “What’s standing in your way today—and can we remove it?”

Sometimes the answer will be enormous. And sometimes… it’s a load of laundry.

Love Looks Like This. ❤️

Held by Love believes dignity should never depend on someone’s bank balance. Through Love Loads, we’re working to make clean laundry accessible to neighbors experiencing financial hardship and homelessness in Northwest Georgia.