File this under "hardships I hadn't thought of before."
Poor parents routinely must choose between feeding buying food for their families or buying diapers for their babies, according to The Greater Philadelphia Diaper Bank - a nonprofit that collects diapers and distributes them to homeless shelters, food pantries, family service agencies and faith-based organizations.
So the PDB is singing the praises iof diaper-maker Huggies, which announced today that the company's charitable campaign Every Little Bottom will donate 100,000 diapers to the Bank.
The donation is part of Huggies' "12 Days of Thanks" cross-country tour organized to launch the National Diaper Bank Network, described as "the first national nonprofit dedicated to helping raise awareness of diaper need, support diaper banks and close the diaper gap in America.
The "diaper gap." Gosh, that's depressing.
From the bank's press release:
"Unfortunately in this poor economy, the need for diaper providers such as The Greater Philadelphia Diaper Bank is growing. Diapering a child is expensive, and food assistance programs such as food stamps and WIC (Women, Infants and Children) do not cover diapers.
"Diaper makers estimate that it costs parents $1,500 a year to diaper a child with disposable diapers, and cloth diapers require access to laundry facilities, while most Laundromats do not allow patrons to use their machines to wash diapers.
"Most child care facilities require a days worth of disposable diapers, and when parents run out of diapers, they are forced to withdraw their children from child care. In a 2010 survey, 34 percent of respondents had cut back on food, utilities, or child care to buy diapers."
Wanna help? Need more info? Go to www.philadelphiadiaperbank.org