In the summer of 2015, Kendall Robinson attended a youth summit about hunger at her local food bank — the Atlanta Community Food Bank. She attended workshops, experienced a poverty simulation and volunteered at a mobile pantry. It was a typical summer until Kendall met someone at the mobile pantry who inspired her mission to provide toiletries for her neighbors in need. The now 16-year-old’s organization goes by the name of “Love Rolls.”
She told us about the day she handed rolls of toilet paper among the people lined up at the mobile pantry. “I was responsible for the distribution of toiletries,” Kendall said, “and a man told me he had to ration one roll for a month.”
Since that day, she has been working “to change the community for the better.”
In April 2016, Love Rolls came to fruition. Kendall held a toilet paper drive and recognized the incredible support from her community.
“We got boxes of toilet paper at our doorstep,” she said. To date, Love Rolls has collected more than 200,000 toilet paper rolls, and Kendall’s next stop is right here in New Jersey — Jersey City, to be specific.
Her parents are from New Jersey, and “my mom witnessed the effects of poverty growing up in Jersey City,” Kendall told us. That’s why the FoodBank is partnering with Kendall’s great initiative and the Nu Lambda Lambda chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity that will help people in need of essentials, like toilet paper.
“I’m hoping that the drive is very successful and that I can inspire youth in the area to get out and help their communities.” Georgia Pacific, one of Love Rolls’ partners, already donated close to 6,000 rolls, a portion of which will go to the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. Soundview in Paterson also donated 2,400 rolls of toilet paper for the drive.
The Love Rolls toilet paper drive, hosted by the Nu Lambda Lambda chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, will take place Saturday, December 10, at Mary McLeod Bethune Center in Jersey City from 10 am to 1 pm. Join us there with rolls of toilet paper that will go a long way for our neighbors in need.
What does Kendall hope to achieve next? She wants to expand nationally and, eventually, globally!