APPLETON - When people think about items to donate to help those in need, they might put together boxes of food, clothes, hygiene items, toys or books.
But for many, donating diapers may never cross their minds.
The United Way Fox Cities, which runs the Fox Cities Diaper Bank, hopes Diaper Need Awareness Week will help educate the community about a need that exists right here in the Fox Cities.
Nationwide, one in three families struggle with diaper need. Parents cannot use food stamps or other government assistance to purchase diapers, which can cost around $70 to $80 a month for one child.
In the Fox Cities, the bank provides clean diapers to around 900 babies each month. In 2019, more than 3,500 individual babies received diapers from the Fox Cities Diaper Bank. Since 2011, the Fox Cities Diaper Bank has distributed more than 3 million diapers.
"There is a diaper need in our community," United Way Fox Cities community development program officer Rhonda Hannemann said. "There are families that are struggling to provide this very basic need for their little ones."
This year, Diaper Need Awareness Week runs from Sept. 21 through Sept. 27.
Clean diapers are vital to a child's health
The Fox Cities Diaper Bank was started in 2011 as part of the National Diaper Bank Network. The national network was founded by Huggies, a Kimberly-Clark brand of diapers.
The United Way works closely with two local companies — Kimberly-Clark and Valley Packaging Industries — and more than a dozen local agencies to get diapers into the community.
The diaper bank stores the 400,000 diapers it receives a year at a warehouse at Valley Packaging. The Fox Cities Diaper Bank's largest donor is Kimberly-Clark. Each year, Kimberly-Clark and Huggies donate 250,000 diapers to the Fox Cities Diaper Bank, Oshkosh Area United Way and Brown County United Way to help families in the region during National Diaper Awareness Week.
Following a donation, the United Way recruits volunteers to repackage the diapers in bags of 25 or 50, depending on the size. Volunteers also put books in the bags, to "build a library for a child and the family and also to encourage parents to read to their child," Hannemann said.
It can take a group of 10 volunteers around two hours to repack 10,000 diapers, United Way Fox Cities executive assistant Deb Schmidt said.
Once the diapers are repackaged, nonprofit agencies in the Fox Cities can place an order once a month and come pick up that order from the diaper bank. The agencies then distribute the diapers to those in the community who need them.
One of the nonprofit agencies the diaper bank works with is Mosaic Family Health, a health care clinic in Appleton.
Mosaic began working with the diaper bank in April, after the clinic began taking on more pregnant patients and hearing from patients that they needed diapers for their children, registered nurse Angelia DeBruin said. The clinic also wanted to help support patients during the COVID-19 pandemic by limiting the amount of places they had to go to get needed supplies.
"Our approach to care is to look at the whole person and support their family needs," DeBruin said. "Providing good quality diapers to families in need help their children to be clean and comfortable, it supports parents in that they do not have to worry how to pay for good dependable diapers. This program allows us to help the family from a financial standpoint as well as help their child maintain good health."
Mosaic Family Health has also received donations of adult incontinence products from the diaper bank to distribute to patients in need.
It's vital for a child's physical and mental health that they have clean diapers, Hannemann said. Not having enough clean diapers can lead to diaper rash or other illnesses.
It is also an added stress on parents.
Many child care facilities require parents to provide a day’s supply of disposable diapers. If parents don't have enough, they can't send their child to day care and will have to miss work or school to watch the child. Parents can also feel guilty that they're not able to provide clean diapers for their children.
"For people who might need a little extra help, it's more than just the physical diaper," Schmidt said. "It's the health of the child, it's the mental health of the parents, it's the financial health of the family."
One story in particular about how the diaper bank helped a Fox Cities family while they were going through a hard time sticks out to Schmidt.
A couple years ago, a mother emailed the United Way Fox Cities and shared that she and her husband were financially stable when their third child was born with heart problems. The mother had to quit her job to take care of the baby and the father had to cut back on his hours at work too.
The family found themselves in need of assistance, a position they never imagined. The mother said she was grateful the diaper bank was there to assist the family in their time of need.
"At some point or another, it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor or Black or white, at some point in time, you might need help," Schmidt said. "And that's what the diaper bank is there for."
How to help
To donate to the Fox Cities Diaper Bank or volunteer, visit FoxCitiesDiaperBank.org or call 920-954-7219. Checks made payable to United Way Fox Cities (memo: Fox Cities Diaper Bank) can be mailed to United Way Fox Cities, 1455 Midway Road, Menasha, WI 54952.
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Contact Natalie Brophy at (715) 216-5452 or nbrophy@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @brophy_natalie.
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Donations needed: Fox Cities Diaper Bank provides diapers for more than 3,500 babies in need - Post-Crescent
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