KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City families are feeling the effects of rising costs across the board. One area in particular is diapers.
HappyBottoms is a nonprofit that gives diapers to families in need. Now they need help from the community.
They say they’re serving more families now than they ever have. In March, they increased the number of diapers they’re able to give each family.
“Last year we had distributed about 980,000 diapers from January to May. This January to May we've distributed almost 2.2 million diapers. So that's a 124% increase. Families are really hurting, and I think they're just seeking whatever resources are available and diapers are a part of that,” said Ashley Allison with HappyBottoms.
Diapers aren’t covered by any sort of governmental aid. As families feel everything that they’re purchasing get more expensive, there’s no help to offset the cost of diapers.
Ashley Allison with HappyBottoms explained the increase in need they’ve seen.
“The need has gone up so much that we're looking for the communities to support in any way they can. We have a partnership with the National Diaper Bank Network as well as certain vendors to where we're able to purchase diapers at a deeply discounted rate. So, if people can give $10, $20 we can take that and turn it into like $40 worth of diapers,” Allison said.
Allison also told us that since diapers aren’t covered by WIC, food stamps or Medicaid, it poses a problem for families who need to send their children to daycare.
“Families also need diapers in order to send their child to daycare. So, if their kids go to daycare, they're required to provide an allotment of diapers if they don't have those diapers, they can't send their kid to daycare, which means that they can't go to work,” Allison said. “Then they're just going to fall further and further behind.”
The organization asks the KC community to donate diapers to their drop boxes across the area or money on their website.
