Breaking Bread Village coordinates toilet paper donation drive

The Breaking Bread Village founder Erin Patrice is shown while hosting a forum called "Agree to Disagree" on Oct. 11, 2022.

Since the beginning of May, The Breaking Bread Village has coordinated a fundraiser to gather much-needed bathroom supplies for local families.

Tuesday was the last day of the toilet paper donation drive, which collected about 1,500 rolls of toilet paper. Erin Patrice, the founder of The Breaking Bread Village, said she wants to do it again.

"It was a success," she said. "I measure success differently than other people; I don't look at things as a number. To me, the fact that people took the time out of their day — on their lunch break, after practice, after work, whatever — to go grab toilet paper and bring it to benefit somebody else, that's success."

The donation drive was inspired by Patrice's own experience with food insecurity and lack of toiletries for her family.

"I just remember having to make choices between like, 'Do I get toilet paper or do I get this? '" she said. "There are times when I went to a McDonald's and just got a bunch of napkins because I literally could not afford toilet paper. You really do create a poverty trap with those kinds of things because people can't afford it."

The Breaking Bread Village partnered with local businesses, including The Gourmet Cupcake Shoppe, which made "poop emoji cupcakes" to bring awareness, Patrice said. The collaboration was part of a wider mission to bring more connectivity to the community.

"There's so many different types of people in this community," she said. "You have people that are elite, people that are middle class — and even middle class right now is struggling in different ways with things like toilet paper…We are all about giving back in different ways."

Patrice's own struggles have resonated with donors, she said. One of them brought one single roll of toilet paper that, to Patrice, seemed like it was the last one in a pack.

"I don't know where they are financially, but it meant a lot to me that somebody would give that," she said. "It doesn't matter if you gave a 36-pack or one roll. It's the fact that you gave it to give."