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Sarah Howard, community outreach coordinator with the Volunteers of America, discusses the need for the community diaper drive Thursday afternoon in the Rapid City Hall Council Chambers.
Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender reads the proclamation for the annual Community Diaper Drive Thursday afternoon.
Rapid City Police Chief Don Hedrick; Volunteers of America's senior director Richard Burton, Rapid City programs director Tara Wilcox and community outreach coordinator Sarah Howard; Mayor Steve Allender and Rapid City Fire Chief Jason Culberson pose for a photo after the proclamation for the Community Diaper Drive Thursday afternoon in the Rapid City Hall Council Chambers.
Rapid City offices and organizations will collect diaper donations from the community Sept. 26 through Oct. 3.
Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender proclaimed the week as Diaper Need Awareness Week in Rapid City Thursday afternoon. To honor the week, Volunteers of America, in partnership with Mommy's Closet, will host a diaper drive.
City Hall, the Rapid City Police Department, Rapid City Fire Department, Pennington County Sheriff's Office and Black Hills Pregnancy Center will host donation drops, and many other organizations partner with Mommy's Closet on donations year-round.
Sarah Howard, community outreach coordinator with Volunteers of America, works with Mommy's Closet and said the organization at its heart is a diaper bank.
"We serve local families with things like diapers, wipes and formula and we advocate and fight what's called diaper need," she said.
Diaper need is the inability to afford diapers and access diapers.
"At the heart of it, it's that feeling where you have this frustration, this shame, almost, where you can't provide diapers for your baby and... you can't change your diaper when you want and how often you want over the course of months," Howard said.
She said 80% of the diapers distributed from Mommy's Closet are from donations from the community.
"Our community shows up for us and we're asking that they continue to show up for us by helping us reach our goal of 20,000 size five diapers over the course of Diaper Need Awareness Week," she said.
Howard said newborns grow into size five and seem to stay there for a while. She said it's the most requested diaper and the one they get the least of.
Allender said in his proclamation that the poorest 20% of the U.S. families spend 14% of their income on diapers. He also said infants require up to 12 diapers a day, and disposable diapers can cost $70-$100 per month per baby.
The proclamation states 57% of parents experiencing diaper need who rely on child care said they missed an average of four days of school or work in the past month because they don't have diapers, and 48% of families delay changing a diaper to extend their supply in an effort to lessen economic hardships.
Allender said diaper need is a particularly important issue in the community. He said he's typically asked about why this drive is something the city wants to partner on. He said if people haven't had the type of economic hardship that forces a baby to wear a dirty diaper for an extended period of time because they can't afford them, then they can't understand poverty and what it's like to have to seek survival.
He also said the people who are in need aren't total strangers.
"These are the children of our community," Allender said. "These are the little people that are going to grow up here, and they're going to be news reporters and mayors and city council people, and they're going to work for volunteer organizations. They're going to build things in our community."
Allender said half of peoples' time should be dedicated to figuring out how to address the needs that are apparent today and the other half should be geared toward preventing those problems from occurring in the future. He said the drive addresses the first of those two issues.
Howard said any primary caregiver of a child can utilize Mommy's Closet, including dads, uncles, aunts and grandparents. They will need to fill out some paperwork at the facility, which is located at 111 New York Street.
Collection locations for packaged or boxed diapers and diaper wipes, which will look like Pack and Play playards, include:
— The Public Safety Building, 300 Kansas City Street
— Rapid City Fire Department main station, 10 Main Street
— Black Hills Pregnancy Center, 1774 Centre Street, Suite 1
Monetary donations will also be accepted. Checks can be mailed or dropped off to Mommy's Closet or online at www.voanr.org/diapers.
— Contact Siandhara Bonnet at siandhara.bonnet@rapidcityjournal.com —
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Sarah Howard, community outreach coordinator with the Volunteers of America, discusses the need for the community diaper drive Thursday afternoon in the Rapid City Hall Council Chambers.
Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender reads the proclamation for the annual Community Diaper Drive Thursday afternoon.
Rapid City Police Chief Don Hedrick; Volunteers of America's senior director Richard Burton, Rapid City programs director Tara Wilcox and community outreach coordinator Sarah Howard; Mayor Steve Allender and Rapid City Fire Chief Jason Culberson pose for a photo after the proclamation for the Community Diaper Drive Thursday afternoon in the Rapid City Hall Council Chambers.
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