This March, Pleasant Valley’s Spartan Assembly is facilitating their first diaper and hygiene drive to help those in need. The need for diapers is often overlooked in the US, and the drive aims to help those in the Quad Cities area struggling with purchasing diapers.
Nearly 50% of young parents in the United States face significant struggles in providing diapers for their children. In a single year, disposable diapers cost an average of $1000 per child. While some families are able to receive aid through SNAP or WIC, the majority of families fall into the grey area of making “too much” to qualify for aid but not enough to be able to comfortably purchase diapers on their own.
Many families that fall into this group resort to other processes to help reduce the amount of diapers they have to purchase. Families will often reuse diapers, use clothes, cloths or towels, putting the children’s health at risk.
The diaper need can cause many other issues for families as well. When families do not have the diapers needed to send their children to childcare, they are forced to miss work, furthering the inability to purchase diapers, often meaning the kids will have to wear the same diapers for longer. Furthermore, babies who sit in diapers for too long are at an elevated risk of skin irritations, disrupted sleep and urinary tract infections.
In the US, there are an estimated 225 diaper banks that aim to help families in a pinch. Hiney Heroes is among them, helping serve the Quad Cities area. “To put it simply, our mission is to ensure that babies in the QCA have clean diapers. Many families struggle to afford this most basic need for their babies. There are no government safety nets to help meet this need – diapers cannot be purchased through WIC or SNAP,” founder Karree Fah said.
Spartan Assembly supports a variety of different causes throughout the school year, but this year is the first time they have organized a diaper drive, not only raising products, but bringing awareness to the cause as well. “I never knew diaper need was such a prominent form of need in the US, nonetheless in the Quad Cities specifically. I think it is so awesome we are supporting this cause and I hope it is something we continue in the future,” senior Dawsyn Green said.
Being one of the only local diaper banks in the area, the drive will extend to the majority Quad Cities area, emphasizing the importance of donating. “According to the National Diaper Bank Network’s Diaper Check 2023, 47% of families with young children have experienced diaper need. Without clean diapers, babies are more susceptible to diaper rash and other health issues. Babies that are not changed regularly cry more, putting them at higher risk for abuse. Without a day’s supply of clean diapers, families cannot take their baby to daycare, leading to missed work and decreased financial stability. Most of all, though, we ask you to donate because the need here in our community is huge. Hiney Heroes has distributed up to 19,000 diapers a month and there are still many babies that are not being served. We wholeheartedly believe that EVERY baby deserves a clean diaper and everyone that steps up to help babies is truly a HERO,” Fah continued.
Diaper need is a greatly overlooked type of need in the US that the vast majority of American families struggle with. Hiney Heroes is a great local diaper bank that supports anyone in the Quad Cities community in need. Consider donating to the Spartan Assembly diaper drive, or visit https://www.hineyheroes.com/ to see where else to donate.
