San Francisco to Offer Diapers to Low-Income Families

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.care2.com/causes/san-francisco-to-offer-diapers-to-low-income-families.html

by s.e. smith October 4, 2015 12:00 pm

Sheree Guthrie is one of the thousands of people in San Francisco who are living on the short end of the city’s horrific inequality. While she’s lived in San Francisco since childhood, she, like many San Franciscans, is being priced out of the city — and can’t even afford to move, either. Trapped in a costly city with a baby and another on the way, she’s applied for government benefits to help her eat and find housing, but benefits don’t cover everything. One of those things is diapers, which can cost between $70-$100 each month for a single child, forcing parents like her to go longer between diaper changes because they can’t afford enough baby supplies to take them through the end of the month. That’s about to change, though, with the San Francisco Diaper Bank, the first government-funded diaper bank in the nation. Administered through Help a Mother Out, the program will be distributing diapers through four nonprofit organizations to families in critical need of this most basic of supplies.

Government benefits have extremely restrictive spending rules that can place challenging limitations on beneficiaries. Diapers are classified like cigarettes under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as “food stamps”), one of the primary resources for low-income families in the United States. While cash benefits from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) can be used at the beneficiary’s discretion, most families sink those resources into housing and other critical needs — like menstruation supplies, which are also not covered by SNAP. That leaves them struggling to afford diapers, especially when paychecks have dwindled down at the end of the month.

5.3 million children in the United States live in poverty, and 33 percent of families report “diaper need,” a shortage of diapers at some point during the year. Toddlers typically need approximately eight diapers daily, while infants can require 12 or more. That’s a lot of diapers, and for many low-income people, predatory merchants overcharge them, knowing that diaper purchases are a critical life necessity. Corner stores and other establishments in low-income neighborhoods, already famous for inflated prices, charge $0.50 or more per diaper, in comparison with prices much lower than that at discount and warehouse stores which low-income families can’t access because they may be out of reach of public transit or inconvenient to get to — or it may be too hard to bring supplies back along a meandering assortment of public transit transfers. Affording an economy pack can also be a barrier, as it may not be possible to spend a large amount of money all at once even with a per-diaper cost savings.

Leaving children in wet diapers comes with health risks like rashes, inflammation and infection. A dry baby is a happy baby not just because wet diapers are uncomfortable, but because they’re dangerous, and many low-income parents are forced to watch their children suffer because they can’t change their diapers often enough. San Francisco’s diaper bank aims to change that, sinking nearly $500,000 annually into diaper assistance for parents who are already on CalWORKS, the state’s welfare program. Parents can show up to distribution centers to request diapers in a range of sizes for their children.

FULL story at link.

[HooptieWagon]

1. Free diapers?

Instead of affordable housing or better jobs/income assistance?

[xmas74]

3. The diapers are the immediate.

Affordable housing could take years to get funding, land, etc. Better jobs? Same instance.

Diapers can be done and quickly. Menstrual supplies, along with diapers, brushes/combs/toilet tissue, soap, shampoo, deodorant should all be part of the benefits of SNAP. (I forgot toothbrush/toothpaste.) Those are immediate needs that can be easily solved.

Sometimes you need to take baby steps to help solve a problem. Free diapers saves families at least $100 a month or more if there are more infants and toddlers in the home. This money can be applied to other expenditures. It doesn't solve all the problems but it does help one problem and quickly.

[Dont call me Shirley]

2. Yes, FREE DIAPERS for babies who need them! That is an immediate necessary need.

[KamaAina]

4. Sweet -- but few such families are left in SF.

Gentrification, y'know.