UF Student Government announced the renewal of the Stay Fresh Laundry Grant that aims to help students pay for their laundry, detergent not included.
The Student Body Treasurer’s Office allocated $6,000 to give 200 eligible students living on campus in Spring and Summer 2020 a $30 laundry card to use campus laundry facilities throughout the semesters, said Kevin Trejos, assistant treasurer.
Students must answer a 200-word essay question to apply, Trejos said. SG officials will provide cards to students in need based on their answering of the essay question while cards last.
The Treasurer’s Office has been working on the project since the beginning of Fall, and Trejos said in previous years when the grant was active, around 60 cards were not claimed due to a lack of applicants. He said they are receiving good responses from applications this time and that he hopes more students will apply.
“If this helps one person, two people, 200 people, then I know that we’re doing the right thing,” he said.
In UF laundry rooms, it costs $1.50 to wash clothes and $1.25 to dry them.
Eva Domas, a 19-year-old UF environmental science sophomore who lives in Murphree Hall said she typically spends about $8 a month to do her laundry, but sometimes when she pays to use a machine, it doesn’t work.
“Sometimes the washer will flood,” she said. “And you have to dry all your clothes on medium to get them to dry all the way, or else you have to pay for another load.”
She said she thinks the grant will be helpful for students at UF and plans to apply for it herself.
“That’s at least one semester of laundry,” she said.
Contact Kaelyn Cassidy at kcassidy@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @kaelyn_cassidy.
UF sophomore Chris Saunders separates his dark from his light clothes in the laundry room of Beaty Towers West on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2007.
