Helping Families Fill Their Diaper Needs

Diaper Depot

Diaper Need is the lack of a sufficient amount of diapers to keep a baby clean, dry, and healthy. This is a real problem in Erie County affecting 1 in 2 working families. Erie Family Center helps fill that need.

Distribution Dates

Get Diapers

0%

Delay diaper changing to stretch their supply

0%

Reuse disposable diapers to stretch their supply

2+ Million

Diapers distributed in Erie County

The Erie Family Center launched the Diaper Depot diaper program on January 27, 2020. Since then, we have distributed more than 2,000,000 diapers and served over 350 families monthly.

The Diaper Depot in Erie County is currently distributing an average of 50 diapers per month per child.

What are some consequences of not having enough diapers?

Babies who remain in a soiled diaper too long are exposed to potential health risks including skin infections, open sores, urinary tract infections, and other conditions that may require medical attention.

While diapers are a basic necessity, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic one in three mothers reported struggling to provide enough diapers for her child.

Diaper needs force many parents to take unsafe measures, including delaying changing a diaper to make their supply last longer (48%) and reusing a disposable diaper (32%), according to a survey of food bank clients.

In addition, there is a strong correlation between maternal depression and diaper need, according to a study conducted with researchers at the Yale School of Medicine. This study found diaper need to be an even greater stressor for mothers than food insecurity.

Diapers are Essential Needs

Diapers are as essential to a child’s health as food and shelter. Yet, state and national safety net programs such as WIC and SNAP do not recognize diapers as a basic need.

The Erie Family Center is helping end the diaper need in the Erie community. The program started by providing one week’s worth of diapers for each child to anyone that needs them once per month and has grown to have public distributions at multiple locations, more than 10 community partners distributing to their families/clients and have begun expanding into Crawford, Warren and Mercer counties.

The Erie Family Center launched the Diaper Depot diaper program on January 27, 2020. Since then, we have distributed over 2,000,000 diapers and are serving over 350 families per month.

The Diaper Depot in Erie County distributes an average of 50 diapers per month per child and has expanded to Crawford, Warren, and Mercer counties.

National Diaper Bank Network

The Erie Family Center is the only Diaper distribution organization associated with a nationally accredited program within a 100-mile radius - National Diaper Bank Network.