The National Diaper Bank Network

The national diaper bank movement began in 1994 when Resolve, Inc., a small consulting firm in Tucson, Arizona held a diaper drive during the holiday season to assist a local crisis nursery. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response, and seeing the great need in their community, the firm made the December Diaper Drive an annual tradition, and within five years they were collecting 300,000 diapers each December, benefiting families at 30 local social service agencies. In 2000, the diaper drive effort was spun off into an independent non-profit organization, the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona, the nation’s first diaper bank.

In 2004, Joanne Samuel Goldblum, a social worker in New Haven, Connecticut, adopted the Arizona model to found The Diaper Bank in response to the desperate need for diapers that she saw in her work with impoverished families. She built the nation’s largest diaper bank, which today distributes more than 2.5 million diapers per year to struggling families in Connecticut.

The success of these diaper banks inspired similar efforts throughout the country. As awareness of the problem of diaper need grew, small but passionate groups of people responded by founding diaper banks in their communities as independent organizations, through their churches, and as part of the work of existing relief agencies.

In 2011, leaders of diaper banks throughout the country formed The National Diaper Bank Network to bring their work to the national level. The National Diaper Bank Network was formed to raise awareness about diaper need at the national level, help new and existing diaper banks grow to meet local needs, and to secure national level resources to fight diaper need.

Huggies supports The National Diaper Bank Network as the founding sponsor. Since June 2010 Huggies has worked to combat diaper need through the Every Little Bottom campaign, donating more than 22 million diapers per year to families in need.