Missouri Care made a donation Monday to help students at Truman Middle School and Bode Middle School.

Missouri Care’s donation of two washer and dryer sets to the St. Joseph School District will meet the simple need of helping students have clean clothes, which can then help boost attendance and student’s self-esteem.

The washer and dryer program offers at-risk students the opportunity to bring dirty clothes with them to school to be cleaned while they attend their classes.

School Social Worker Kelly Bristol said the biggest impact of having a washer and dryer available at the school is decreasing barriers for students.

“There are a lot of students, who, quite possibly, utilities are shut off or maybe they don’t have the ability to get to a laundry mat to be able to wash their clothes frequently enough and so they’re coming to school in clothes that are dingy or dirty or that smell sometimes,” Bristol said. “When we had our Knock and Talk officers first start going out for attendance for kids that weren’t showing up, one of the themes that came up in that was students either didn’t have clothes or didn’t have clean clothes to be able to get to school because they didn’t want to be ridiculed.”

Bristol said she got in touch with a regional contact for Missouri Care about their need and put together a proposal.

“We’ve been washing clothes for some kiddos, but obviously with the used appliances it’s a little less opportunity than what we have with brand new ones,” Bristol said. “So we’ve had the need, we just haven’t been able to fulfill it as much as we wanted to and so, when this opportunity came about, we just realized we could be making such a bigger impact.”

Monetary funds were provided for the washer and dryer and Bristol said the extra funds will be used to provide bags for students and purchase laundry detergent and dryer sheets. The washer and dryer also are used for Life Skills students to learn practical skills.