The Nappie Project, the Loveland-founded diaper donation nonprofit, will now provide its supply through the Food Bank for Larimer County, which has officially acquired the organization.
The Nappie Project has served northern Colorado since 2015 and is dedicated to sourcing and distributing diapers to low-income families. Recently, the program donated its millionth diaper and has reached 1.04 million donations as of June.
The Food Bank for Larimer County, who has partnered with the project for many years, announced June 2 that the project would be melded into the food bank as its newest aid program.
While the organization began as a small, grassroots effort to supply the needy in the county, it has since grown to distributing hundreds of thousands of diapers each year. Over time, and over the course of the partnership, the food bank became the primary distribution point for the Nappie Project.
Jan Touslee, the nonprofit’s co-founder, said that during 2020, the need for diapers from families increased by 40%. She said during the pandemic, the help of the food bank was instrumental, giving them more space and better distribution method.
“It is the way to meet basic needs of families in one place,” she said. “To me, that is terrific.”
The project, which has been merged into the food bank, will now operate out of the west wing of the food bank’s west location in Fort Collins. The space, which used to be the food bank’s primary distribution site until 2018, has been leased out until just recently.
“We knew we would be able to store the diapers here,” said food bank CEO Amy Pezzani. She said that the acquisition will not only offer the Nappie Project the space, but also the logistics, communication and any other support to reach as many people in need as possible.
Touslee said that prior to this acquisition, the nonprofit stored diapers among three different locations with an additional office in her house. Since they are now part of the food bank, Touslee said everything is more centralized.
“It affords a wonderful opportunity for us,” Touslee said. “It allows us to have all of our inventory in one place.”
According to Josh Greene, operations director for the food bank, said that for the first year of the new acquisition, operations will run exactly as they have before without many changes. For clients, though, he said that there should be no change at all as diapers are distributed to food bank sites and other partners who offer diapers.
“If anything we are going to have more availability,” Greene said.
The acquisition was celebrated Monday evening at the new location, with plenty of boxes of diapers lining the entrance of the high-ceiling warehouse. During the open house event, food bank employees, Nappie Project employees, community partners and family met up, chatted and explored the potential that this acquisition brings.
“I think this is going to be a great partnership to expand to reach more families who might be in need and explore the opportunities of what the food bank can look like in the future and what the Nappie Project can look like in the future,” said Janet Werst, community health supervisor at UCHealth.
Michael Buttram with Rams Against Hunger, a Colorado State University group aimed at addressing food insecurity among students, said the partnership makes sense to aid the entire community, including college students.
“This is a logical place to be,” he said.
Marcia Touslee, Jan’s sister-in-law, said she remembered when the project was first started, preparing diapers in her living room with a glass of wine. Since then, she has seen the project grow into what it is today.
“(Jan) has devoted her life to this,” she said.
Those who have been with the Nappie Project for years also said that the acquisition is going to be a great help to their operations.
Tenley Haack, board secretary for the Nappie Project, said one of the things the nonprofit has been working on for years is finding the best space to store and distribute diapers.
“It is really, quite frankly, a dream come true,” Haack said.
Pezzani said she hopes that the acquisition helps not only those who the Nappie Project serves but also those who have built it.
“I felt like we could offer the organization, through this acquisition, the opportunity for Jan’s legacy to live on as well as still continue to provide that diaper need and, potentially in the future, expand to more families who need it,” she said.
The Link LonkJune 08, 2021 at 09:16AM
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Larimer County Food Bank officially acquires Nappie Project diaper program - Loveland Reporter-Herald
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