Struggling parents with children still in diapers may get a $30 million boost under a proposed state budget allocation to assist existing diaper banks in California and launch similar services in other regions, including San Bernardino County.
Money for the five state-funded diaper banks now in operation – in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Fresno and San Francisco counties – and three new ones would extend over a three-year period, with each diaper bank receiving a total of $3.75 million under the spending plan proposed by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, and supported by a host of Southern California legislators.
Job loss and other economic hardships imposed on families by the coronavirus pandemic, along with spikes in the cost of disposable diapers, is sending more parents with young children to the diaper banks and other social service organizations looking for help.
Just as COVID-19 sparked food insecurity on a scale not seen before by local food banks, demand for diaper assistance rose exponentially over the past year, say operators of the five state-subsidized diaper banks, which are part of the National Diaper Bank Network.
Community Action Partnership of Orange County operates one of the county’s two food banks and its only community-based diaper bank, which is part of the National Diaper Bank Network. Since it launched, the service has distributed 10.7 million diapers – in allotments of 50 diapers a month per child. That adds up to diapering an average of 37,000 baby bottoms a month.
“The need for diapers is a crisis,” said Gregory Scott, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit.
“Just as food and hunger is a crisis.”
Strong support
In a letter authored by Gonzalez and addressed to leaders in the state legislature who are working on budget negotiations under a June 15 deadline, more than two dozen Southern California state legislators, from both sides of the aisle, signed their support for extending and expanding the state’s Diaper Bank Program.
The initial round of funding for the diaper program, pushed for by Gonzalez and established in 2018, is set to expire this year. The diaper banks rely as well on contributions of cash and donations of diapers, mainly through diaper drives, such as HomeAid Orange County’s annual Essentials Diaper Drive that takes place during May and June.
Orange County is the most recent of the five state-subsidized diaper banks, approved in 2019 and awarded $1.7 million in funding for two years. It launched on March 18, 2020, right at the start of the statewide COVID-19 shutdown. The diapers are provided free to eligible families served by 70 partner agencies in a collaborative network.
The $30 million request would boost the annual allotment to each diaper bank by $250,000. And besides creating a new diaper bank in the Inland Empire to be run by Community Action Partnership of San Bernardino County, which also oversees a food bank, the proposed new funding would expand the state program to Sacramento and Sonoma counties.
Community Action Partnership in San Bernardino works with more than 250 organizations to distribute food, hygiene products and other items. “Diapers are always at the top of the list of needed items,” said Patricia L. Nickles-Butler, president and chief executive officer.
Requests for diapers are made on a daily basis, and in a recently completed community needs assessment, 58% of responses identified diapers as a “high need,” Nickles-Butler said.
The pandemic has only worsened the need, especially among single parents, diaper bank supporters say.
“Long before the pandemic, one in three families across the country struggled to afford enough diapers and Latina and Black mothers were significantly more likely to report diaper need,” the letter authored by Assemblywoman Gonzalez states, citing findings from a peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2013.
“Now, more than 2.1 million Californians remain unemployed” and face tough choices, the letter continues.
“Many families must decide between buying diapers or groceries or paying their rent.”
Cost increases
The families served by the Community Action Partnership organizations in Orange and San Bernardino counties have tended to be people with jobs in the service industry that was hit hard by the economic shutdown during the pandemic. But there are new faces among them – folks with once-comfortable middle-class lifestyles, Scott said.
“Sometimes we take for granted something so basic as diapers for our babies. But for some families, that’s a big expense.”
Companies that make disposable diapers, including Kimberly-Clark and its Huggies and Pull-Ups brands, have already started raising prices or announced hikes in the near future – part of increased costs of household goods as the economy improves. Under the headline, “Millions of Americans about to get hit with diaper sticker shock,” CNN reported in April that both Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble (Pampers, Luvs and All Good diapers) planned mid-to-high single-digit percentage increases.
That news came on top of an 8.7% hike in disposable diaper prices during the year that ended April 10, according to CNN’s reporting on NielsenIQ’s tracking of retail sales data.
At a Target in Santa Ana on Friday, June 4, a 124-count package of Huggies “Snug & Dry” Size 1 disposable diapers (for babies 8 to 14 pounds) was priced at $24.99; a 168-count package of Size 3 for children 16 to 28 pounds cost $37.99. Online at Walmart.com, a 256-count of the same Size 1 diapers cost $48.47; a 210-count of Size 3 sold for $83.28 – both described as a one-month supply.
The expense is only compounded if more than one child is still in diapers. And baby wipes go along with that.
At best, diaper banks – either through free or low-cost fees – supplement what parents buy on their own. According to research by the National Diaper Bank Network, parents tend to end up about a dozen diapers short by the end of every week.
The monthly 50 diapers per baby from the Orange County Diaper Bank, Scott said, “is meant to fill that gap.”
Diaper drive
Because of the economic impact of COVID-19 and diaper price increases, the Orange County Diaper Bank coronavirus relief from the state has allowed distribution of an additional monthly box of diapers – with anywhere from 64 to 104 diapers, depending on diaper size – per child, said diaper bank manager Natalie Anderson.
Through the end of 2020, the diaper bank provided surplus diapers to 15 to 20 additional local organizations outside of its regular collaborative network of 40 agencies. But in just the past six months, that number climbed to 30, Anderson said.
Even with the subsidy from the state, donations from the community have been and will remain vital to keep up with demand, diaper bank operators say.
Last year, a mostly digital HomeAid Essentials Diaper Drive, the single largest such effort in Orange County, collected 960,000 diapers for families experiencing homelessness. Businesses, service groups and others host sites for diaper collection over several weeks.
About 20 sites open to the public for this year’s drive are listed online at homeaidoc.org/events/2021-essentials-diaper-drive/; donations also can be made through HomeAid Orange County’s Amazon.com registry at buff.ly/38EaZJJ.
The drive ends on Friday, June 11, when the collected diapers will be dropped off from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot off Lewis Street at Christ Cathedral, 13280 Chapman Ave, Garden Grove. Individual donors can also drop off packaged diapers and baby wipes that day. And, as is tradition, people who make a living building homes will compete in creating mini-structures using packaged diapers.
“We will still have diaper structures from local homebuilding teams, all showcasing something iconic from California,” said Gina Scott, executive director of HomeAid Orange County.
More on OC Diaper Bank
For a list of the Orange County Diaper Bank’s partner agencies, go to capoc.org/addressing-immediate-needs/ and click the Diaper Bank tab; eligibility requirements vary. Or contact Natalie Anderson, diaper bank manager, at nanderson@capoc.org or 714-897-6670, ext. 5350.
The Link LonkJune 06, 2021 at 10:02PM
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