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Metro Atlanta nonprofit hopes to fill warehouse during Diaper Need Awareness Week
Many families are hurting as the price of diapers continues to rise with one in three families having to choose between diapers and food. The metro Atlanta nonprofit Helping Mamas wants to help make sure no family is without the essential items needed for a newborn.
NORCROSS, Ga. - Diapers or food? That’s the dilemma for one in three Georgia families, the head of Helping Mamas, the state's only baby supply bank says.
"Families are hurting. We've serving double-triple families than we have in years past," CEO Jamie Lackey explains.
Due to supply chain issues and inflation, diapers have become more of a hardship item. Federal support programs like WIC and SNAP do not cover their purchase.
The essential baby care item is one of the product the Georgia nonprofit provides for parents.
"The price of the diapers has spiked significantly. We are seeing the price of a box that used to be $25 cost $45 to $50," Lackey says.
With babies and toddlers on average needing six to 10 diapers a day to stay clean, dry, and healthy, that spike means families that never struggled before now need help.
As National Diaper Need Awareness Week approaches, volunteers have formed teams to help stock the organization's Norcross warehouse with 300,000 disposable diapers.
"My personal goal is $5,000," team captain Dwayna Haley told FOX 5.
Hayley knows drives like these can make all the difference.
"I am the product of a family that could not afford essential items for me and my brothers. I know what can happen when a woman has to make that decision when mothering," she said.
Something so small, can truly have a big impact.
Diaper Need Awareness Week is Sept. 24 through Oct. 2.
If you’d like to help, you may donate through Helping Mama’s website.