Diaper Bank Possible With Health Fund

• When moms can't afford $100+/month diaper bill the compromises bring disease and possibly abuse
• Bank soon will diaper ten times more, thanks to a donor who set up a health preference fund

For families with small incomes, disposable diapers are a necessity they can't live without. They must buy them. Licensed day care centers require parents to provide disposable diapers, even if those parents qualify for free or subsidized childcare. The cost? More than $100 per month per child is common. It makes for tough choices. And sometimes poor decisions, like leaving a child too long in a soiled diaper in an effort to stretch out the diaper supply. The child understandably cries. The frustrated parent can lash out at the child.

"The reality is that it's about preventing unnecessary health complications, like staph or hepatitis, and reducing the risk of abuse for underprivileged kids," says Joanne Goldblum, Executive Director of the New Haven Diaper Bank.

The Diaper Bank hopes to take that problem off the table by distributing free diapers to qualified New Haven families. More than a thousand do. The Diaper Bank now reaches hundreds of children and has plans to expand, thanks to a multi-year grant from the Josephine Burgess Fund, established in 1981 for treatment and prevention of disease.

You can support health supporting causes like the Diaper Bank through a permanent endowment. To learn more, please contact Sharon Cappetta at 203-777-7071.