BALDWINSVILLE — “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me. … Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me,” Jesus says in Matthew 25:35-40.
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church of Baldwinsville is living out the lesson of Matthew 25 by feeding and clothing Baldwinsville residents in need through its monthly “Loads and Loaves of Love” program, which provides vouchers for laundry at Colonial Laundromat in the village and meals at Subway next door.
Thanks to a Domestic Hunger Grant from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), St. Mark’s has expanded Loads and Loaves to two days a month.
Denise Ballou of St. Mark’s stewardship committee spearheads the program.
“We started out in April of 2019. I’d heard about a similar ministry in another Lutheran Church across the country,” Ballou said.
Since 2019, Loads and Loaves has helped wash and dry over 700 loads of laundry. In July of this year, the program provided vouchers for 80 loads of laundry — a far cry from Loads and Loaves’ first session, which yielded 16 loads of laundry.
St. Mark’s gives the vouchers to local agencies such as B’ville CARES, Canton Woods Senior Center, the Baldwinsville Community Food Pantry, and PEACE, Inc., to distribute to their clients according to their needs and the size of their families.
“They know their clients — we don’t,” Ballou said.
Each voucher pays for a wash cycle for one regular load of laundry and 30 minutes in the dryer. Thanks to a donation from Earth Breeze, clients also receive eco-friendly, waterless detergent sheets. Loads and Loaves provides dryer sheets as well, and clients can enjoy snacks and bottled water while waiting for their laundry.
If a laundromat customer does not have a voucher but says they need one, St. Mark’s volunteers have a few on hand.
“We never turn anybody away,” Ballou said.
Other customers have pitched in to help.
“There are people in the laundromat who see what we’re doing, who like what we’re doing, and give us money,” Ballou said. One young man told her, “‘I’ve been looking for a way to pay it forward’ and he handed me the rest of his quarters.”
As for the “laundry lunches,” Subway has been a “generous partner,” Ballou said. Congregants sponsor lunches for $5 each, which provides clients with a 6-inch sub, beverage, and chips or a cookie.
While COVID has changed some of the Loads and Loaves protocols — volunteers now measure out quarters and detergent sheets into individual packages with gloves, and St. Mark’s monthly community dinners have shifted to a grab-and-go drive-thru model — the pandemic proved how important the program is.
“There’s so many warm and wonderful stories about how appreciative they are. We’re on a first-name basis with a lot of folks,” Ballou said.
The next two sessions of Loads and Loaves of Love take place from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 15, and 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 18, at Colonial Laundromat on East Genesee Street in the village of Baldwinsville.
St. Mark’s is in need of volunteers for the program. To learn more, contact Denise Ballou at [email protected] or call the church at 315-638-0406.
The church accepts snacks, bottled water, large garbage bags, and reusable mesh laundry bags for Loads and Loaves. There is a donation box at the church, which is located at 2840 Cold Springs Road. Make a monetary donation by check or online at stmarksbville.com.
