What would you do to keep your child clean, dry, and healthy? Skip meals? Miss bill payments? Take on an extra job?
For nearly half of US families with young children, the answer is: all of the above and more.
A National Diaper Bank Network study found that in 2023, an unprecedented 47% of families with young children nationwide struggled to afford diapers—a drastic increase from 2010, when 33% of families reported diaper need.
In response, libraries have stepped up to distribute these critical supplies. Though they can be challenging to fund and coordinate, these programs are immensely popular and—for many communities—vital.
In 2020, as COVID-19 raged, the Western Pennsylvania Diaper Bank in Pittsburgh needed an outdoor area in which to safely distribute supplies to families. “They asked if they could set up in our parking lot,” says Mandy Luchs, director of Sewickley Township Public Library (STPL) in Herminie, Pennsylvania. Soon after, she explains, “we decided we wanted to have a more formal relationship with them.”
Now STPL uses grant money to pay an annual partner fee of $2,650 to the diaper bank. That allows the library to offer packages of diapers or training pants to about 50 families a month. Each family can receive up to two packages per child plus a package of wipes, and supplies are distributed the first Wednesday of each month.
“We picked that day because our local church has a food pantry that people come to on that same first Wednesday,” Luchs says. “So if families had transportation issues, or they were coming from outside the area, then they would only have to make one trip to our town to do it.”
We really view diapers as part of the core needs that go into the social determinants of health.—Kristen Sorth, director, St. Louis (Mo.) County Library
The library’s diaper program has had no issues attracting participants. “We can’t advertise it a lot because we run out so quickly,” says Luchs. “We run out of almost everything every month. [Pull-up training pants] go quickly; I think that’s because the kids are in those sizes for a longer period of time.”
Implementing the diaper distribution program has come with significant logistical challenges, such as storage. At STPL, diaper kits are stored in the basement, meaning that on distribution day, staff members must constantly go up and down stairs to retrieve them. “We put them in big blue moving bags, like IKEA bags, kind of,” Luchs says. “They have handles that we can almost wear like a backpack to bring them up and down the steps. It’s a lot of physical labor, but we feel like it’s worth the trouble.”
St. Louis (Mo.) County Library (SLCL) began its partnership with the St. Louis Area Diaper Bank in 2019, after Library Director Kristen Sorth and the head of the diaper bank found themselves serving on a local committee together and struck up the idea of an official collaboration.
A diaper program at the library “just made sense,” Sorth says. “The library is the perfect place to distribute things for people that need them. We have parking; it’s a safe place. And we knew people were struggling. Diapers are expensive, and they are taxed at a higher rate,” she says, referring to the 4.2% tax in Missouri, whose tax code treats them as a luxury item. “We really view diapers as part of the core needs that go into the social determinants of health.”
Families enroll in SLCL’s program by providing a child’s name, birthdate, and zip code. The library asks that children in the program be present at the time of enrollment, but they don’t have to be present at subsequent pickups, which can take place at any of SLCL’s six locations. “We try to make it as easy as possible,” Sorth adds. “You don’t need a library card to get diapers. You don’t even have to live in our district.”
SLCL’s program has distributed nearly 2 million diapers to more than 10,000 families since its inception. “We broke the diaper bank’s partnership model, because they were just overwhelmed by the number of diapers we were distributing compared to their other locations” at food banks, churches, and similar institutions, Sorth says.
Who’s paying for all these diapers at the library? The St. Louis County Library Foundation fundraises about $13,000 each year for the diaper program. “We don’t use tax dollars, other than our employees doing the distribution,” Sorth stresses.
LA County (Calif.) Library (LACL) launched its diaper program in 2022 following a board motion from the County Board of Supervisors and a partnership with local nonprofit Baby2Baby, which donated an initial $25,000 and 300,000 diapers. “We wanted to help families who were poor or disproportionately affected by the pandemic, or just challenged with the rising cost of essential items,” says Library Director Skye Patrick.
Diaper kits are available across six library locations, and participants can request one simply by walking up to the circulation desk. “We allow you to take one kit per day,” Patrick says, although “if a person came in and she was like, ‘Listen, I really need three kits,’ and we know that person has triplets, we’ll absolutely be able to assist.”
So far, LACL has distributed more than 4,000 diaper kits. “I would not be surprised if we found ourselves at the end of the year wanting to add more [diaper distribution] locations,” Patrick says. “It’s one of those things where you scratch your head and think, ‘Why didn’t we think about this more than two years ago?’”
The post The Bottom Line appeared first on American Libraries Magazine.
