Diaper Pantry Welcomes Community Support

Bundled Blessings, the diaper pantry and outreach ministry of First United Methodist Church of Evanston, gives away nearly 15,000 diapers a month which are distributed by local social service agencies to 300 children. As the diaper pantry approached its fourth anniversary this fall, it received some unexpected and welcomed support from the Evanston community.

Evanston resident Erin Burden first learned about Bundled Blessings from material posted on a bulletin board at her son’s Dempster Street Swim School. The postcard she saw introduced her to the diaper need locally and nationally.

Burden checked out the Bundled Blessings website and learned that as many as one in three families nationally struggle to provide an adequate supply of diapers for their children, and that keeping an infant or toddler in diapers can cost upwards of $100 per month. Yet public assistance such as SNAP and WIC do not cover diapers. “That’s ridiculous!” says Burden, who has a five-year-old son. “Parenthood for anyone can be stressful; imagine adding the worry of not having sufficient diapers. This is a basic need.”

As Burden learned more about what experts call “the diaper crisis,” she and her husband were considering how to commemorate the first anniversary of their daughter Isla’s death. Baby Isla, who suffered from a rare form of brain tumor, lived just 20 minutes. They liked what the church was doing through Bundled Blessings. “We loved the idea of a diaper drive as a tangible way to remember Isla. We have a great support network of family and friends, and this gave them a concrete way they could honor Isla, help us, and help other babies who really need it.”

To date the diaper drive commemorating Baby Isla has yielded over 2,500 diapers and over $2,000 for Bundled Blessings, which together translates to providing 250 families with 50 diapers. Researchers estimate that 50 diapers is the gap between what an infant or toddler needs each month to stay clean and dry and the number of diapers a low-income family can provide. Bundled Blessings works to meet this diaper gap by providing diapers to Evanston families each month through partner social service agencies.

Another Evanston resident and parent, Jean-Marie Freise, learned about the diaper crisis from an August 20, 2017 Huffington Post online article. She was flabbergasted to learn that government subsidies for low income families do not cover expensive personal care items like tampons and diapers. She read about the ripple effect caused when a family does not have enough diapers: the health risks for the child, the parent’s stress over not providing this basic need, the inability to bring the child to a daycare center that requires a supply of diapers, financial issues when a parent can’t go to work because the child can’t be left at daycare. “Learning about this huge need really pulled at my heartstrings,” she reports.

Freise thought about the economic diversity of Evanston with both wealthy residents and households who probably desperately need diapers. She decided to issue what she called the “Diaper Duty Challenge” to friends and family on Facebook: to commit to buy a box of diapers each month for a year to be donated to families in need, and to drop them off at Freise’s home.

Initially, a dozen or so persons stepped up to Freise’s challenge, and soon she created a Facebook group titled “Diaper Duty” to further spread the word. She posted about her initiative on another local Facebook Group, Evanston Mamas, and the Evanston Mamas responded by pledging their support, too. “I think being able to give in a meaningful and concrete way is attractive to people. When I put diapers in my shopping cart, I think ‘I’m buying these for a mom and child.’”

Next came the question of where and how to get the diapers into the hands of those who need them. Freise knew she wanted to keep the diapers in the local community. Evanstonian Jim Young, a Facebook friend and First Church member active in local outreach activities, introduced her to Bundled Blessings.
Freise learned that according to the National Diaper Bank Network, Bundled Blessings is the only diaper pantry between Chicago and Gurnee, IL, and distributes diapers locally. She visited the diaper pantry, met the volunteer staff, and in late September arrived at the church with a pickup truck carrying 4,633 diapers.

The “Diaper Duty” challenge operates on an honor system, but Freise says it has been “super successful,” thanks to the power of social media. Another factor in the success is her constant cheerleading; almost daily she posts pictures of donations, updates on inventory, or thanks to new participants. As this article goes to print Freise reports that 73 members follow Diaper Duty and estimates that most followers are participating in the challenge. Given the composition of her network, she believes most supporters are Evanston households.

“There’s a great sense of comradery around what we are doing; we are supporting each other, sharing info about diaper sales, and feeding off each other’s energy,” reports Freise. Some people have set up recurring orders for monthly deliveries, and others have partnered up with a friend to meet the monthly challenge.
On Oct. 30, Freise posted: “My current inventory is at 4,158 (this includes the pull-ups and size 6's I received today). If you haven't purchased your October diapers, there's still time! Help me reach or surpass the quantity of our last delivery [of 4,633]. We can do this!!!”

Nancy Brown and Sue Hagedorn, the co-chairs of Bundled Blessings, eagerly await the second delivery of diapers from Freise and her network and affirm First Church’s commitment to addressing local diaper need. The diaper pantry has tripled its output of diapers since beginning in fall 2013, and as the partner agencies report, the need continues. “We are in this for the long haul,” says Hagedorn, “and expanding our base of support to the wider community is key.”

The Bundled Blessings website at www.faithatfirst.com/serving/b... lists several ways persons can support the pantry. Donations of diapers can be dropped off at red barrels around Evanston, including barrels at Evanston Main Public Library in the Children’s Department (1703 Orrington Ave.), First Church (516 Church St.), Little Beans Café (430 Asbury Ave.), and four local preschools. Persons wishing to make donations to Bundled Blessings can send checks made out to FUMC (with Bundled Blessings noted in the memo line) to First Church, 516 Church St, Evanston IL 60201. Online donations and ticket purchases for the diaper pantry’s fundraiser, “Bottoms Up” on November 19, 5:00-7:30 p.m., can be made online at the website listed above.

Freise dreams of a time when in addition to the diaper pantry Evanston would have a diaper dispensary that can distribute emergency diapers directly to families in need. For now, she regularly reissues her online diaper duty challenge: “Let’s help our Evanston babies! Let’s help Bundled Blessings! These children are our children. Who’s in?”