Help a mother out

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.

——————————
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

Author
Recent Posts

Whitney

RookieMoms.com co-founder Whitney lives with her husband, son, and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area where she writes about parenting, crafts, and activities that moms can do with babies in tow. She and Heather also publish 510Families.com, a site for East Bay parents.