Diaper Bank
THE DIAPER BANK
In fall 2018, the Junior League of Champlain Valley (JLCV) established Chittenden County’s first Diaper Bank and began distributing diapers to local food shelves from its South Burlington headquarters. The Diaper Bank’s initial inventory was boosted by a large donation of 46,000 diapers from Seventh Generation. Since that initial donation, the Diaper Bank has supported over 85 agencies statewide. In January 2019, the Diaper Bank became Vermont’s first affiliated bank in the National Diaper Bank Network.
In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, and many challenges facing families, JLCV successfully procured $50,000 of CARES Act funds from the Vermont Legislature to expand distributions statewide. To date, the Diaper Bank has distributed over 2.4 million diapers to agencies all over the state of Vermont — 879,000 were distributed in 2022 alone.
THE NEED
“Diaper Need” impacts one in three U.S. families and the well-being of our country’s infants and toddlers. Burlington’s Feeding Chittenden reports that 6-10 people per day are requesting diapers. It can cost up to $80 per month to diaper a child and no state or federal safety-net program allocates dollars specifically for the purchase of diapers. In fact, many programs prevent spending money specifically on diapers. Without diapers, infants and toddlers cannot attend childcare or participate in early childhood education. Without childcare, parents cannot go to work or school.
THE DETAILS
The JLCV accepts donations of unused disposable diapers in any type, size, or brand and unopened wipes and diaper creams. Donation drop-off bins are located at Healthy Living in South Burlington, Healthy Living in Williston and Hula in Burlington.
Please note that we cannot accept cloth diapers. Many of those who utilize the diaper bank use public laundry facilities that for hygiene reasons, do not permit washing cloth diapers.