Help organize a bath towel drive for Nativity House Shelter

Nativity House Shelter is 167-bed shelter serving adult men and women who are actively experiencing homelessness in Tacoma. Shelter guests are welcome to use shower facilitates and we supply towels.

Since Nativity House Shelter is such a large shelter, there is an ongoing need for bath towels. We're looking for groups and community volunteers to help organize bath towel drives to help keep inventory up throughout the year.

Why is the need for towels ongoing?

1. Towel inventory always fluctuates. Bath towels wear out just like everything else after repeated washing.
2. It can be very difficult to get shelter guests to return towels after they have been used. People living in survival-mode are often afraid to return something if they are afraid that it won't be available again. Even with the best towel retention practices in place, a certain percentage of bath towels will always disappear.
3. Perceived scarcity can create actual scarcity if enough guests don't return their towels. Towel shortages are cyclical and unfortunately something we just need to plan for by having inventory in reserve.

Where to start:

If you are interested in organizing a bath towel drive, please contact meganed@ccsww.org to schedule a drop off date, obtain promotional flyers and work with staff to develope a game plan. If you have questions please call 253-365-41111.

Details & Guidance:

While we always appreciate new bath towels, we are truly grateful for "pre-owned" bath towels too. This is a great opportunity to clean out the linen closet. We just ask that "pre-owned" towels be in usable condition and that they be washed, especially if they've been in the linen cabinet for an extended period of time.

If you're ever on the fence about donating an item, a good question to ask yourself is "would I give this to someone I love?". If the answer is "no", it should not be donated.