MUSCATINE, Iowa–It takes a lot of diapers to keep babies clean and comfortable throughout the day. Even the littlest newborns can use as many as 12 diapers a day, making it tough for their parents to keep up with them. For parents facing financial hard times, affording so many diapers can present an enormous challenge and also create barriers for taking children to daycare, as many daycares require parents to bring a supply of diapers for their children to use while there. In observance of National Diaper Need Awareness Week, the Community Diaper Bank will give away free diapers to families that can use them on Sept. 24 from 8 to 11 a.m. at their warehouse at 1425 South Houser St.
Since the Community Diaper Bank first opened late in November of 2019, they have worked hard to get the word out about National Diaper Need Awareness Week and to make a difference wherever they can. This year, they have received so many diapers from local donations and their membership in the National Diaper Bank Network that they have enough to give out to any family that could use them.
The morning of the giveaway, any family with children that use diapers can come and get some. The Community Diaper Bank has sizes newborn through size seven available and can give up to five packages of diapers to each family that comes out. To make the giveaway as convenient as possible, families simply need to drive up to the Community Diaper Bank’s warehouse. There, volunteers will ask them what size or sizes they need and how many packages they would like and will go get them and bring them out to their cars. In total, the Diaper Bank plans to give out 125 diapers to each family that comes, for a total of 20,000 individual diapers.
Even after the free diaper drive ends, the Community Diaper Bank works with many partner organizations to ensure that families who need diapers can get them to their children for free. By having the free drive, the Community Diaper Bank hopes that more people will learn about them and that they can get information about their partner organizations into the hands of people who will benefit from it. “We believe this event will spread awareness of diaper needs in our community as well as share information on where families can get resources such as diapers from our partner agencies,” explained Community Diaper Bank Director Whitney Howell.
With preparations underway for the Community Diaper Bank’s first event, Howell feels pleased that the Diaper Bank has grown so much that they can serve the community in this way and elated to share what they have with so many families that could use the help: “All of our diapers have been donated or purchased from donated funds and grants. We feel very excited that our bank has grown so much in the last three years. Really, we are glad we can offer this service to those families who are struggling to buy diapers for their children.”
215 E 2nd St Muscatine, IA 52761 (563)607-5373 info@discovermuscatine.com
Discover Muscatine is the Muscatine area’s only locally owned news organization, reaching over 22,000 households every week with hyper-local news, sports and local interest content from Muscatine County.