Serving Our Youngest Clients

The annual Bare Bottoms Diaper Drive is underway and the response to helping families continues to be amazing. In 2022 the Calgary Food Bank distributed over 141,000 diapers to 4,700 families through our Emergency Hamper Program. While diapers are crucial, so is nutrition food. In cooperation with Alberta Health Services, the Calgary Food Bank has re-visited and re-vamped the contents of Baby Hampers. Each hamper contains diapers, wipes, formula, baby cereal, canned beans such as black beans or kidney beans, eggs and vegetables. Basic instructions are included with the hampers as well as information for clients to get more information on how to best provide the necessary nutrition for their little ones.  

The cost of diapers alone can become overwhelming to a family already struggling to make ends meet. The cascading effect of diaper insecurity – the challenge to provide the necessities like diapers – is often a hidden consequence of low wages and was evident long before the pandemic. Some families will cut back on essentials, like food, utilities, medicine, and childcare in order to afford enough diapers for their children. 

Diapers can consume a huge portion of a low-income family’s budget and this adds significant stress and tension to the already difficult task of juggling parenting and working. 

Diaper insecurity negatively impacts a families’ health, mental well-being and economic stability. Research from the Yale School of Medicine found that diaper need correlates strongly with parental depression, even to a greater degree than food insecurity. For example, on occasion and out of pure desperate necessity, parents may delay changing their baby’s diaper as a way of making their supply last a little longer. This is distressing to a parent when putting their children at risk of rash, discomfort or even infection. 

Because we are mandated to provide emergency food support, we rely on donations of diapers and designated funds to fill baby hampers. That is a long answer to the question, “why collect diapers” but an important one that explains why the youngest and most vulnerable in our community are taken care of. 

Tag us @CalgaryFoodBank in your social media posts and let friends and family know how easy it is to donate to help babies and families needing diapers. 

Designate your donation to purchase diapers. 

Donate opened or unopened packages of diapers at the Calgary Food Bank or one of the Alberta Health Service Centres, see the website for locations.