The San Diego Food Bank’s Diaper Bank Program Supports Low-Income Families
Imagine having to choose between buying diapers for your child and paying for groceries. When families seek assistance from the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, they do not have to choose thanks to the Diaper Bank Program. For a family on a fixed budget, disposable diapers can be quite expensive, and the costs add up quickly.
According to a nationwide study commissioned by the National Diaper Bank Network*, 47% of families with young children (under the age of four) experience diaper need. This can be defined as running out of diapers completely in-between paychecks or minimizing the number of diaper changes until they can afford to buy more.
To help address this need, the San Diego Food Bank became the first state-funded diaper bank in 2017. Since then, the program has distributed more than 34.5 million diapers locally. The Diaper Bank’s current $3.75 million in funding from the State of California to support operations for three years, expired June 30, 2024. It was then that the Food Bank sprang into action!
“The San Diego Food Bank team combined forces with the California Association of Diaper Banks to strategize on how we could best approach this challenge to ensure we did not lose this crucial program,” San Diego Food Bank CEO, Casey Castillo shared with GB Magazine. “Our Diaper Bank Program has become an indispensable resource in the lives of the families we serve. We needed to be proactive to make sure we can continue to help families now and in the future.”
Having diapers readily available has been helpful in the lives of families like Jessica’s. It allows parents to allocate their budget to other financial needs like rent, utility bills and other basic necessities. Jessica visited the Food Bank’s Client Choice Pantry at the Food Bank’s Vista warehouse where she received both food and diapers. “Receiving assistance has removed a lot of stress now that we do not have to worry about diapers. Being almost homeless, not having a lot of money, that is twenty dollars a week that we can spend on milk instead of diapers,” said Jessica.
The San Diego Food Bank is currently partnered with 100 local organizations who distribute the diapers in key areas of the County. Together, these organizations provide disposable diapers to an estimated 10,000 households, on average, per month.
After months of making phone calls and meeting with State representatives on the importance of this vital program, the San Diego Food Bank received news that partial funding was included in the last version of the State budget approved by Governor Gavin Newsom. Even with this partial funding of $800,000 for the San Diego Food Bank’s program renewed, the program still faces a sizable financial gap to meet current operational needs and is asking for your help.
For those who may be interested in supporting this program through donations of unopened packages of diapers or monetary donations, please visit SanDiegoFoodBank.org/Diapers.
