What started as a small effort to fill a gap in services has ballooned into a large-scale operation serving over 100 families every week.
Last March, when it became apparent kids wouldn’t be going back to school anytime soon, Marina Seevak jumped into action.
Seevak is founder of The Beautiful Stuff Project, a nonprofit community maker’s space that develops and delivers arts curriculum with donated scrap materials. So, when the pandemic hit, she started thinking about how to support students and families who may not have access to basic art supplies.
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“We knew it was going to be really hard, and a lot of kids wouldn’t have any supplies at home,” she said. “We started getting out what we called basic supply kits. We partnered with Mystic Housing, The Welcome Project, the Somerville Family Learning Collaborative…places we knew served families that might need stuff. We made these boxes that had markers, glue sticks, scissors – and we tried to put in books when we could.”
Seevak also started thinking about what other resources families might be lacking in this time, so she reached out to long-time friend Nomi Davidson, who directs the Somerville Family Learning Collaborative, an initiative within Somerville Public Schools.
“They had been doing a much smaller scale diaper distribution – fueled by donations from Cradles to Crayons – pre-COVID, but we knew with families were losing jobs quickly and diapers are not funded by any other source,” said Seevak. “You can’t get them, and it’s a huge problem. It’s about $100 a month for diapers – it’s expensive. Maternal depression is more connected to not being able to by diapers than food.”
Davidson described it as a “pop-up public-private partnership,” and said that Seevak came to her asking what she could do.
“The issue of diapers had come up because there is no source for diapers in Somerville,” said Davidson. “It’s come up over the years through our Somerbaby project, when we’re working with families, that there’s no easy source for free diapers.”
In a year, the partnership has collected around 200,000 diapers through wish list purchases and individual donations, 80,000 through a donation from Cradles to Crayons, and purchased another 200,000 thanks to financial donations.
The group has distributed around 5,000 diapers each week, and has not missed a week. The initiative has also received support from a Tufts Emergency Fund grant and CARES Act funding through the city.
It started with online fundraising through The Beautiful Stuff Project. Seevak said diapers are impossible to find cheap in bulk, and, at the beginning of the pandemic, they were hard to find at all because people were hoarding them.
“I’d go to BJs and buy in bulk, then schlep it back,” she said. “The Beautiful Stuff Project became home base – we stored them there and also Connexion church in East Somerville. We came up with this system and started distributing them every week at the free meal sites. We packaged them by size, so when families came to pick up food they could also pick up diapers.”
Seevak and The Beautiful Stuff Project staff Betsy Martinez and James Holton Fox manage most of the collection – whether financial or physical donations – while the SFLC Volunteer Coordinator Jenn Capuano organizes distribution. Residents in Dover and Arlington have even pitched in to collect and store diapers. Members of Somerville temple Havurat Shalom are helping out, too.
“There wasn’t money behind it in any significant way, it was born like March 15, but it felt urgent and then it grew,” said Davidson. “The fact we have regulars who come and depend on this service – what happens is it’s coupled with being able to share other information, like educational materials and training. For example, we noticed there were people asking for much larger [diaper] sizes, because kids weren’t in childcare and weren’t getting toilet trained at the age kids are typically.”
To support families, the SFLC held a virtual potty training workshop in five languages on March 4, organized by SFLC Homeless Families and Basic Needs Coordinator Francia Reyes.
Davidson believes the need is only going to grow, and said she believes the initiative is only sustainable as is through June.
“I feel immense pride about this thing,” she said. “We just had this idea and mobilizing happened so quickly because everybody has it as such a need.”
Right now, The Beautiful Stuff Project is seeking financial donations over wish list donations, as they’ve recently received a large donation of diapers. Donations can be made at www.thebeautifulstuffproject.org/donate.
The Link LonkMarch 16, 2021 at 04:35PM
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Somerville partnership distributes half a million diapers to local families - Wicked Local
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