MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - The first ever NBC15 Diaper Drive is off to an amazing start! As of 11 a.m. Thursday, online monetary donations topped $50,000.
With the matching donation of $20,000 and an additional $12,000 raised before Thursday, The NBC15 Diaper Drive has raised $82,000 for The Village Diaper Bank.
“Our pie in the sky big number a few months ago was $20,000, so this is really incredible,” says Megan Sollenberger, the CEO and Founder of The Village Diaper Bank. “We raised $65,000 in all of last year, so this is astronomical for us. It will open so many doors for us.”
We are hoping to reach $100,000 for the inaugural NBC15 Diaper Drive. That amount would supply 700,000 diapers for families in need.
People can make monetary donations online right now by clicking here.
DIAPER DONATION DRIVE-THRU
We also have a diaper donation drive-thru at The Village Diaper Bank at 21 Marsh Court. People can pull up and make a contact-less donation of unused or brand-new disposable diapers. The diaper donation drive-thru started at 6 a.m. and ends at 8 p.m. on Thursday.
Jennifer Soule was one of the first people donating packages of diapers at the drive-thru event. It was her birthday, and she wanted to celebrate by giving back to her community.
“My folks had rough times when I was a baby,” says Soule. “They would have appreciated some extra help back then.”
The Village Diaper Bank says the sizes most in need are diapers ins sizes 5,6, or 7 as well as any pull-up diapers.
Sollenberger says eventually The Village Diaper Bank will have a cloth diaper program in the future.
“Cloth requires up front costs and the ability to have laundry facilities at the ready and to have child care that accepts cloth,” Sollenberger said.
Sollenberger said that not all families have easy access to a place where they can wash cloth diapers.
“For now, we’re working with a lot of families that are homeless, working and living in situations that don’t have reliable access to laundry services, and for that reason, they really rely on disposable just to be able to make it.”
THE NEED
Right now, one in three families do not have the means to have a sufficient supply of diapers to keep their children clean and healthy.
According to The Village Diaper Bank, infants require 12 diapers a day, and toddlers need about 8.
The costs to get those diapers can be $70 to $80 per month per child. Without transportation, buying diapers at a convenience store rather than a “big box” store can increase the monthly cost of diapers.
Most child care programs require parents to provide disposable diapers. Early Head Start provides diapers for infants and toddlers.
There is also a lack of federal assistance to help pay for diaper costs.
Federal assistance programs like SNAP and WIC cannot be used for diaper purchases. The only program that can is TANF, which stands for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
TANF is used to cover more than just diaper expenses. Families use the allocated funds for utility bills, rent, transportation, and any other basic needs not covered by SNAP or WIC. In Wisconsin, the maximum TANF benefit for a family of three, that includes one parent and two children, is $653 dollars. Diapers would cost 12-percent of that benefit.
DIAPER DROP-OFF LOCATIONS
If you want to donate diapers and can’t make it out to The Village Diaper Bank, there are 5 drop-off locations throughout Dane County.
- Festival Foods in Madison and Verona
- Icki Sticki in Mount Horeb and Verona
- Hilldale Mall atrium located near Macy’s
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The Link LonkFebruary 25, 2021 at 09:31PM
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