|by Kimberly Rosas
In 2010, Giving Diapers Giving Hope founder
Kristen McCarthy became pregnant with her
second child, was laid off from her teaching job,
became a single parent, and had to move out of
her home—all within a few months.
With two children in diapers, and ineligible for
public assistance, Kristen had to stretch what
little money she had. Thankfully, she had invested in cloth diapers before losing her job—
with out them she would not have been able to
afford to diaper her children at all. Even if she
had qualified for SNAP or WIC, neither of these
programs covered diapers.
Kristen knew firsthand how it felt to have to
choose between diapers and food. It was this
that inspired Kristen and her friend Emily
Glover to create Giving Diapers, Giving Hope’s
first local cloth diaper bank in Gloucester, MA.
Giving Diapers, Giving Hope grew into a national diaper bank, shipping cloth diapers to
approved families, about 16 per family with one
child. Families only pay the cost of shipping
and are asked to return the diapers when they
were done with diapering or able to afford their
own set.
Emily took on the role of receiving donations,
sorting, and doing minor repair work from her
own home. Kristen handled application approvals and the ever increasing email requests.
Soon Giving Diapers, Giving Hope began receiving help from student volunteers through
their local YMCA during the school year.
In 2012, their small operation suddenly began
receiving more than 10 applications a week.
Try as they might, they simply couldn’t keep up
with the workload.
In the summer of 2013, GDGH announced that
they would be taking a break from national
lending—Emily was due with a new baby in
July, Kristen would be working two jobs, and
their student volunteers would be unable to assist with shipping for the summer. It was time
to decide how to proceed, and to determine if it
was even possible.
In October of 2013, Giving Diapers, Giving
Hope received the help they so desperately
needed in order to continue their mission of
helping more families use cloth and diaper their
children.
GroVia and The Natural Baby Company took on
the responsibilities of receiving, sorting, packing and shipping diapers to families. Using
their large storage facility in Montana, and the
help of their employees, this partnership lifted
the burden and made the ability to help families
nationally possible once again.
Since re-opening to national applications in
February 2014, Giving Diapers, Giving Hope
and GroVia team have shipped out more than
70 complete cloth diaper stashes - diapering 85
children!
Families who apply to Giving Diapers, Giving
Hope come from all over the country and reflect
a wide range of backgrounds. Some applicants
are single mothers without work, some are newlyweds who are scraping, and others are families who had it all until one, or both, lost their
jobs or faced unexpected medical hardships.
With the help of Giving Diapers, Giving Hope
families can save $1,000 or more and put $600
a year towards expenses and other needs for
their families.
Disposable diapers banks may serve as a bandaid for diaper need, but Giving Diapers, Giving
Hope has shown that cloth diapering can be th e
cure.
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