The Lived Experiences mobile laundry trailer rolled into Mira Costa Community College Tuesday. It was the first time the trailer's been to the Oceanside community learning center campus.
Lived Experience's founder, Oscarin Ortega, said laundry is a basic need that many students and community members can't afford right now due to the rise in gas and food prices.
“Having a free load of laundry can save them up to $20 to $40 and it just takes a burden off them. So just having that safe space and saving those extra bucks in their lives its helping them out big time," said Ortega.
Attendees told KPBS the event brought much needed savings to their households.
Yadira Crespo is studying English at the learning center and heard about the mobile laundry event through an email. She said the event came at the perfect time for her because she was living at a women's domestic violence shelter and got an apartment two weeks ago.
"We don't always have the resources to be going to the laundromat and this really helped us so much. Especially with all the food, pantry items, and other help," Crespo said.
She said the free laundry helped her out tremendously and she wasn’t expecting all of the additional resources offered at the event.
Clothes, showers, groceries and resources were available for anyone attending the event.
But Ortega said the event was no easy feat to organize and fund.
“Its a big job. Just taking this trailer from one site to another 5 miles is about $20 to $30," he said. "Not only is it a lot of maintenance on the vehicle itself that's hauling the trailer, but the trailer itself there's a lot of complications ... the washers inside might break, the pipes might break. The overhead cost on this is pretty pricey just to take it anywhere.”
To help with those costs, Dr. Bronner's soap company has a team helping local organizations with transportation, generators and soap.
“One of the coolest things I do is help bring showers to people, help bring food, step into these community growing spaces and show up and be a part of it," said Ki Light with Dr. Bronner's.
Light says while gas is more expensive, Dr. Bronner's is dedicated to helping the community and giving back.
The free laundry and resource event will continue on the last Tuesday of every month and is open to all.
