Who we are

“It was one of those middle-of-the-night things,” recalls Dion Oxford, former director of the Gateway homeless shelter and founder of what was originally called Gateway Linens. “I remember hearing a guy at the shelter say we should do our own laundry. The idea sat in the back of my mind. Then one night, I woke up thinking we had to do this. We’ve got able-bodied men who want to work, and they have essentially been declared unemployable by our culture. Then we have this amount of money we’re already spending on laundry for our shelter. Why can’t we build an industrial laundry facility and do the laundry ourselves and train the guys who live here to help them reintegrate into the workforce?”

From this “dream,” the enterprise originally branded as Gateway Linens was birthed and has become a thriving employment retraining program. This initiative symbolizes the mandate to love our neighbour. The individuals doing the laundry on the shop floor are working hard to rediscover their self-worth and their capacity to fully reintegrate with society, through employment or education as well as in other practical ways.

Click here to read our detailed Mission…Purpose…Focus

Milestones

DREAM – 2005

The seed of an idea was followed by two years of careful planning to open an industrial laundry operation.

STARTUP – 2007

A functional laundry began operations, known as Gateway Linens, as tenants in the basement of 199 Church Street.

MOVE – 2010

Growth and logistics mandated a move to 312 Broadview Avenue, our current location. This property was already owned by The Salvation Army, having opened in 1960 as a church and later re-purposed as a shelter, and after a brief period of dormancy it was determined that this building was ideal for the growing needs of an expanding laundry.

EXPANSION – 2010

A second “enterprise” was added, providing garbage-junk removal disposal services. During the summer of 2009 there was a 36-day garbage strike in Toronto and the scramble to manage the garbage pile-ups at the Gateway shelter and elsewhere led to a feasibility study about undertaking this ourselves. With the investment in a Ministry of the Environment license and the donation of funds to purchase our first utility trailer, disposal services was born.

BRANDING & GROWTH – 2016

The two separate GL&DS components - laundry and disposal – officially became fully integrated and branded as Gateway Linens & Disposal Services (GL&DS). 

Growth has allowed us to ensure sustainability and to bring new participants into our employment retraining program.

Laundry Services

Pick up from your location, sort, wash, dry, fold, package and deliver back to your location, specializing in sheets, pillow cases, towels of all sizes and types, blankets, mattress covers, tablecloths, aprons, lab coats, and mats of all sizes.

Disposal Services

Collect, load and responsibly dispose of garbage and other waste.

Our simple commitment is to provide quality linens cleaning and disposal services at fair prices and with service excellence.

Are you responsible for…

• …a shelter or drop-in centre?
• …some other type of transitional housing? 
• …how about a small fitness club or yoga studio? esthetics, massage or acupuncture services?

In fact, are you any type of business or organization that needs to get things laundered and at the same time wants to support a true social purpose?

OR

Are you currently paying to have your garbage and recycled items collected and hauled away?
Do you have any other special disposal projects?

If you have answered “Yes” to even one of these questions, check out what Gateway Linens & Disposal Services has to offer. If you currently launder your own linens of whatever type, or haul away your own garbage and recyclables, have you considered what it really costs you? Equipment and consumables, labour costs, and more. Have you considered that it might save you money, not to mention enhance your organizational efficiency, to outsource these services? Do you currently outsource? Maybe we can offer you a better deal, and more personalized service. (It is not just wordplay that commits us to refer to our customers as partners. It is a fundamental principle of who we are and what we do.)

You will have nothing to lose and possibly LOTS to gain by checking us out. Please go to our Contact page to get more information or to arrange for a detailed quote. Thank you!!