Assemblywoman Laurie Davies Joins OC Food Bank to Support Military and Needy Families with a Community Diaper Drive
Members of the community were asked to donate new unopened baby diapers to be distributed by the Orange County Diaper Bank to families in need.
Laguna Niguel, CA – Assemblywoman Laurie Davies, in partnership with the Orange County Diaper Bank, lead a diaper drive to support military and other families in Orange County on Friday, June 26th. Members of the community were asked to donate unopened baby diapers, at one of two Walmart locations (Laguna Niguel and San Clemente), to be distributed to families throughout Orange County, including military families in Camp Pendleton.
An estimated 15,000 diapers were collected between the two locations. A heartfelt thank you goes out to Common Bound, a local Laguna Niguel youth group who collected and delivered over 4,000 diapers and the Automobile Club of Southern California for donating well over 1,000 diapers.
“Young families are experiencing rising costs on everything throughout the state as a result of higher inflation and I am very comforted to see so many in the community delivering diapers to truly help those in need,” stated Assemblywoman Davies. “The cost to live in South Orange County is close to two times the national average that creates financial hardships for many families especially our military families.”
The Orange County Diaper Bank is run by the Community Action Partnership of Orange County. In Orange County, CA, 48,300 children aged 3 and younger (out of 122,658 total) live in households who struggle to afford diapers. That’s almost 40% of the children under three in Orange County. Community Action Partnership’s OC Diaper Bank worked with 99 partners to distribute close to 60 million diapers between 2020-2025, serving almost 550,000 children.
The Impact of Diapers
The OC Diaper Bank program is intended to help solve an important piece of the poverty puzzle for young parents living in poverty by giving them the hand-up they need to work for their families. Diapers are expensive. A month’s supply for one child can cost between $70 and $80, and diapers cannot be purchased with CalFresh benefits or WIC. As a result, parents try to do without diapers by stretching their supply by leaving babies in dirty diapers longer or by reusing diapers.
A diaper is a small thing, but its impact is significant. Not having diapers means parents cannot leave their children with a childcare provider, most of whom require parents to provide disposable diapers for their children. As a result, parents cannot go to work to earn money. Not having diapers means a longer time between changes, which can lead to severe diaper rash and other health problems. Not having diapers means that babies who cry, because their diaper is dirty, will cry that much longer, increasing stress for parents struggling to make ends meet. And not having diapers can adversely affect a mother’s feeling of self-worth, negatively impacting the mother-child bond.