Did you know that government assistance programs like food stamps cannot be used for diapers? Also, food banks don’t stock diapers. This means that mothers without the means to pay for the supply of diapers their babies require may be using dirty diapers for more hours or reusing soiled diapers in order to make their supplies stretch farther. Imagine having to choose between food, shelter for the night, or diapers. It’s not easy.
What can you do?
Hold a diaper drive.
Rally your family and friends, your mom’s group or neighbors. More inspiration and instructions can be found courtesy of Help A Mother Out, a small group of women who are working to raise awareness of this issue. They have organized drop-off destinations for diapers in my area.
I am personally pledging to round up 1000 diapers during the month of September to donate to mothers who need them. I will hit up my preschool, my co-workers, and my family. If I can get 25 people to contribute 40 diapers each, I can do it.
Consider holding a diaper drive in your area. Anyone can do it, at any time.
Help A Mother Out provides us with some creative ideas and a toolkit.
- Throw a baby shower for a homeless baby. Invite the girls over for brunch and ask them to bring diapers. Make it fun with baby shower games.
- Host a bake sale. This is a great idea to involve lots of people for little cost, with a great payoff. Use the money to buy diapers!
- Collect loose change. At work you can do this over a period of time. Community groups might choose one month to dedicate to this. Go to Coinstar and redeem 100% of the money for an Amazon.com gift certificate to buy things from wish lists.
- Ask people to go shopping in their own closets. Maybe kids have outgrown a diaper size? Organizations will take individual diapers from an opened package.
- Parties: lots of people are coming together already, why not ask everyone to bring diapers? This is a great idea for baby showers, bridal showers, and kids’ birthday parties.
If you are inspired, I’d love to hear your goal.
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Bay Area drop offs for diapers and pull ups:
Sadie Dey’s Cafe ~ 4210 Telegraph Ave., OAKLAND, CA
Natural Resources ~ 1367 Valencia St SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Baby Buzz ~ 1314 Lincoln Ave, #1A SAN JOSE, CA
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
We are really lucky to have a food bank in our city that DOES provide the necessities like diapers, formula, baby bottles and food to moms who are not so fortunate. Where I focus my giving is to the shelters where women go, often with their children. These shelters sometimes provide everything, since the woman had to walk away with what she could grab, or nothing at all.
I am glad you bring this to light though. Often we forget about these things, and focus on food, when thinking of hunger and poverty.
Thank you so much, Whitney, for spreading the word and pledging 1000 diapers! I hope we see you on the 9th at SadieDey’s Cafe.
Caroline – Thank you for mentioning domestic violence and homeless shelters. You are right. Many of our partner organizations work directly with these moms and families who have no where else to turn. Right now, especially with cuts in funding, and alarming up tick of domestic violence, these agencies need our help all over the country.
Thanks again Rookie Moms!
Who knew? Thank you for getting the word out. I’m going to have to do a little investigating to see what is offerred in our area. We use cloth diapers in our house but I’m thinking that in lieu of birthday gifts for my son’s first birthday we might just have to ask for a donation to a cause like this. Definitely gets a mama thinking…
thanks for posting this. i was inspired by the “help a mom out” announcement i read last week in BPN. count me in for 25 diapers toward your drive.
We would hold diaper drives in college to benefit the local pregnancy help center. We would set up shop (with permission) outside the local grocery store and hand out 1/4 sheet hand bills asking shoppers to purchase diapers while shopping and bring them to us and we’d deliver them to local non-profit agencies helping families with young children. In less than 2 hours we’d have a carload full of diapers to deliver.
Thank you! Now I know what you do with diapers my baby has grown too big for.
I don’t use disposable diapers on my little boy, I have sewn up some pocket nappies instead. They can be filled with anything absorbent, like tea towels and even old T-shirts from the op-shop. To wash I use just plain water and hang them up in the sun to disinfect, works great. They are as easy to use as a disposable and dry very fast. Anyone interested in the pattern to sew it for charity just ask.
I love this idea! This is exactly the kind of thing my community needs. Thank you for posting about this and raising awareness for a problem most of us never think of. Keaghan’s Mum- thanks also for you response. I don’t really use disposables that much either and have found financial freedom from cloth diapers! When my budget runs out, I still have diapers for my baby!
This breaks my heart!
Keaghan’s Mum – I’d love to get the pattern. How can I contact you?
I’m so glad to see someone doing something about this!! Most food banks (in AZ at least) do take diapers and give them out.. The problem is that mostly they are newborn sizes… When you have a size 3 or 4 baby, a size one won’t work!! Wipes and diaper creams are also really helpful.. Your donations really do help people, maybe even friends, coworkers, associates that you never even knew needed the help.