CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (WEAU) - Before the pandemic, St. Francesca Resource Center in Chippewa County served more than 90 families a week. For the past year, that number has dropped to between 40 and 50 with its curbside pickup.
One constant during the pandemic has been an unsatisfied need in the community. A healthy supply of diapers.
“We’ve got a lot of size fours right now... we’ll go through them.”
Tina Simmons is the Programming Coordinator at St. Francesca Resource Center in Chippewa Falls. One of the more than 50 hunger-relief programs in the two counties that Feed My People Food Bank serves and a pantry that will directly benefit from the Junior League of Eau Claire Diaper Bank. The drive is helping put more diapers on the shelves at area pantries. That extra supply allows for more diapers on babies bottoms.
“When families would come in, we were only able to provide one size diaper for the family. But now with the diapers that we are getting in, we are able to, if they have two children in the family that are in diapers we’re able to get them both sizes. So it’s really been a blessing to receive all these,” says Simmons.
Jessica Joyce, the Junior League of Eau Claire’s co-chair of the Diaper Drive adds, “There isn’t any federal programs that supply assistance for diapers so Junior League saw that gap and reached out to the National Diaper Bank Network and worked to get a chapter founded in Eau Claire as a Junior League project. Just because that’s a strain on families that gosh we hope we can help alleviate.”
St. Francesca is open every Tuesday from 9 am until 1 pm and from 4 until 7 pm offering food assistance, clothing and other resources. With diapers costing most families more than one hundred dollars a month, Simmons says it’s one expense that parents can save on. As for diaper sizes needed....
Simmons says, “A lot of moms and dads are both working and I think potty training is a little bit extended, a little longer so we’re seeing all the way up to size 6 that kids are needing.”
Joyce agrees, “The larger diapers are higher in demand. So as a mom I know I experienced with both of my children that the size one, the size twos they go through very quickly. But once they get into the larger sizes they are in them for a longer period of time so we do see higher demand for the larger sizes the most.”
You can drop off diapers at any of the three Festival Foods locations in Eau Claire or at the Royal Credit Union on Woodward Avenue in Chippewa Falls. You can also go online at rcu.org/diaperdrive to make a monetary donation.
RCU will match up to the first $5,000 raised and as of Monday, May 17th that total is $4,589.90. For every 45-hundred dollars donated, the Diaper Bank is able to purchase 30-thousand diapers.
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The Link LonkMay 18, 2021 at 09:16AM
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Diaper Drive supports food pantries in Eau Claire & Chippewa counties - WEAU
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