It’s a pretty grim scene for many living in Southwest Missouri. Struggles with generational poverty, the increasing influence of gangs, teenagers living on the streets and babies without clean diapers plague the area.

“Families do their best to provide a healthy life for their children, but constantly face pitfalls that cause them to stumble and fail and feel so inadequate in their ability to parent their children and provide even the basic needs,” said Jill Bright of the Diaper Bank of the Ozarks. The organization serves 32 poverty-stricken counties in Southwest Missouri. The largest city served is Springfield, with a population of 160,000 and a poverty level of 25.6%.  

“In most of the counties we serve, farmland is predominant and towns have fewer than 5,000 residents,” Jill said. “There are few large corporations, many small businesses, many farms, large and small.”

The Diaper Bank of the Ozarks works with 86 partner agencies, among them Jake’s Diapers, to provide access both to disposable and cloth diapers for families in need. The organization also focuses on education about pregnancy and parenting.

“With diaper loan kits provided by Jakes Diapers, we are able to support more families,” Jill said. “Knowing that our loan kits are provided to us, we are able to provide a Cloth Diaper Program Director to offer classes, individual education and follow up support to families interested in giving cloth diapers a try.  This enables us to reach far more families and provide plenty of assistance to get families started and also to help them through problems.”

About Our Diaper Drop Partners

The Diaper Bank of the Ozarks is just one of our partners featured in our 12 Drops of Christmas series. Jake’s Diapers aims to shed light on the stories of the people we serve to increase awareness about the impact a donation of hygiene products can have on a single individual.

Make your impact today! A donation of $16 solves diaper need for moms and babies like the ones in our story.