DIAPER DOLLARS

It’s no secret that lower-income families face all kinds of challenges, from meeting the rent to putting food on the table. Every day can present a lack of one sort or another. And that includes diapers. According to the National Diaper Bank Network, one in three American families struggle to adequately diaper their children. It’s a dilemma that wouldn’t occur to most of us. But for Amy Kadens, a Glencoe mother of three, working to alleviate this situation has become a driving passion.

“Everyone thinks, ‘Oh it’s just a diaper.’ But it’s truly so much more,” says Kadens. “The effects of not being able to properly diaper a child are compounding and tragic. In my opinion, this is a public health crisis without a public solution. Diaper need is one of the leading causes of maternal depression. Children who don’t have enough diapers experience physical symptoms, such as rashes and infections. There is also a direct correlation between not having enough diapers and abuse and neglect. If you don’t have a sufficient supply of diapers, you cannot send your child to daycare, which automatically sets them behind from an educational standpoint. If a child cannot go to daycare, their parent likely cannot go to work and collect a paycheck for the family, which perpetuates the cycle of poverty. Exacerbating the problem, SNAP (food stamps) and WIC assistance can’t be used to purchase diapers.”

Kadens’ awareness of this pressing situation began when she co-founded Share our Spare in 2011, which provides clothing and other essentials for infants and toddlers. “We lived in the city with an infant daughter and tons of stuff in not much space,” recalls Kadens. “So, I walked down the street to the Common Pantry on Damen Avenue to ask if my items would be helpful for another family. Everyone in my orbit also had something spare to share. So, in a matter of a few weeks, we had a room full of infant and toddler supplies.”

During COVID, Share our Spare teamed up with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and since 2020 has distributed nearly 10 million diapers to food pantries and other outlets. Now, Kadens is launching a new initiative to help get families the diapers they need—MOD Collective’s Diaper Dollars. MOD takes its name from the initials of Marion O’Brien Donovan, who invented the precursor to the disposable diaper. Diaper Dollars provides a monthly digital cash stipend of $40 that allows individuals to purchase diapers at hundreds of retailers. The six-month pilot program is administered in collaboration with Family Connects, a home visiting program of the Chicago Department of Public Health.

While diaper banks and the agencies that access them do address a critical need, they don’t address the full need. “I have seen parents waiting in line for hours and when they get to the front of the line, the size of diapers they need isn’t available,” shares Kadens. “Or the mom has a little boy, and all that’s available are princess diapers. That is another reason why we’re doing the subsidy digitally, to allow people to shop where they typically shop and pay how they typically pay.”

“After moving to the suburbs, I wasn’t as close to Share our Spare as I wanted to be, but I knew that there was still so much to be done. So many people aren’t aware of the pervasiveness of diaper insecurity. It’s a hidden symptom of poverty. I’m trying to peel back the layers and show how diaper insecurity touches on the economy, on mental health, on community,” explains Kadens.

With the recent launch of MOD Collective’s Diaper Dollars, Kadens is eagerly awaiting to assess its effectiveness. “The average cost to diaper a child is $80 a month, so we are testing to see if reducing the cost by $40 makes a difference. We will be monitoring the program with our research partner to see not only if people used the subsidy, but also if it had a positive impact—did they have enough diapers to get through the month, did it make them feel better, did they miss fewer days of work? We’re looking at it holistically to see how cash for diapers improves lives. Again, this is a pilot program. At the end of six months, we might find $40 didn’t move the needle. But I hope we will come out of this with the kind of data that will help legislators push policy forward. There is momentum right now—Illinois legislators have recently proposed a diaper stipend bill. However, there is a huge need and we are only scratching the surface. MOD Collective is here to change that.”

For more information, visit modcollective.org.