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Date: 4/20/2021
HUNTINGTON – Nursing students in two area colleges are sponsoring drives for diapers and menstrual supplies to benefit It Takes a Village and the Amherst Survival Center.
Mollie Hartford, development and outreach director, said several classes of nursing students from the University of Massachusetts College of Nursing and the Elms College School of Nursing have been working with It Takes a Village (hilltownvillage.org) as part of their clinical practicum requirements. It Takes a Village runs the only diaper bank in the hilltowns.
Hartford said the students were alarmed to learn that the lack of diaper access to low income families has reached a crisis stage. One in three families in the US cannot afford diapers, and currently families are not allowed to use SNAP or WIC benefits to purchase diapers. A lack of diapers can keep babies from attending daycare, which means parents cannot attend work or school, and keeping a baby in a soiled diaper too long can lead to serious medical complications.
Students also discovered the public health implications for people who cannot afford menstrual supplies, a problem that is often overlooked. “Elms students were saying so many times people are thinking about diapers and the baby, and they’re not thinking about mom,” Hartford said.
Mobilized into action, the students decided to plan and implement concurrent supply drives for diapers, wipes, and other sanitary supplies, to drop off at The Village Closet at 2 E. Main St. in Huntington, and at the Amherst Survival Center, 138 Sunderland Rd., in Amherst.
Elms College students focused on menstrual and incontinence supplies, collecting them through an on-campus drive.
UMASS students decided to find a way for people to donate from home. Through the end of April, donors can go to yougivegoods.com/UMASSDiaperDriveand select items to donate, which will be shipped directly to The Village Closet, It Takes a Village’s donation center in Huntington. Participants can also make a monetary donation, which will be used to offset the costs of deliveries to families lacking transportation, as well as purchasing diapers in sizes not usually donated.
An anonymous donor is also going to match the value of every donation of supplies or funds for both schools’ drives
Hartford said people come into The Village Closet every day asking for diapers. “Especially with tiny ones, someone on low income will ask. We say every baby poops, and they are expensive. We try to make it no shame. If this makes things a little easier, grocery bills stretch a little farther, it impacts the whole family,” she said.
In addition to collecting disposable diapers in every size, Hartford said they have a whole collection of cloth diapers – flat, prefolded and covers with snaps. It Takes a Village also recently partnered with The Cloth Option (theclothoption.org) in Holyoke, which donated packages of cloth diapers to The Village Closet for families to start with.
“The great thing about cloth diapers, is they can be used for multiple kids,” Hartford said. She said education is available on how to use them and sanitize them. She said there are also disposable diapers that are environmentally friendly and compostable in commercial sites. “We get them sometimes,” she said, adding that they accept open packages and will combine them with other packages.
It Takes a Village supports about 1500 families every year through home visits, parent groups, and free supplies. The Village Closet distributes nearly 30,000 diapers every year to families all across Western Mass. The Amherst Survival Center serves more than 6,000 people each year through their food pantry, community meals, drop-in health clinic, as well as a variety of other support services.
For more information, please visit yougivegoods.com/UMASSDiaperDrive or www.hilltownvillage.org.