Families can spend up to $100 a month or more on diapers alone, and parents felt that cost pressurize during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lori Goodman said.
“Having a baby is really expensive. I feel like it’s those first few years—child care is really expensive, diapers, all of those things you need with a baby,” said Goodman, the executive director for LEAP: Learn Engage Advocate Partner—a Santa Barbara County nonprofit that provides high-quality, trauma-informed child care to its community members.
“LEAP launched its diaper bank in January 2021, this was deep in the pandemic times, we were serving families with basic supplies—food, COVID tests—and what we saw over and over again was: Diapers were expensive,” she said.
To combat this expense, an individual donor started a diaper bank, which took off quickly and led LEAP to distribute 5,000 diapers a month to families during the pandemic. The nonprofit has given more than 200,000 diapers to South County and Lompoc families since it launched.
During the last week in September, LEAP celebrated Diaper Need Awareness Week by hosting a diaper drive, which collected 11,331 diapers, and continues its efforts to support this need throughout the year.
Families can come in twice a month year-round to pick up diapers. Parents with older children in size 6 can get a pack of 20 diapers, and those with younger children—who go through diapers faster—can get a 30-pack.
“A newborn will easily go through seven to eight diapers a day. We’re definitely not covering that full cost, but we’re making a little bit of a dent,” Goodman said.
LEAP primarily caters its services to South County families—with a 50-year-old presence in the area—but it’s striving to bring its services to Lompoc and eventually more North County communities. Partnerships, Goodman said, are the avenues LEAP is exploring in order to provide greater services to these areas with high child care needs.
“There’s no reason why people should have to come all the way to Goleta; we should be able to do that intake and support and find those resources in the community,” Goodman said. “If we partner with some of our local family resource centers, we are hoping we can get diapers out to more people.”
In Lompoc—a city where LEAP identified it could have a big impact—the nonprofit partnered with Trinity Nazarene Church for its diaper drives and eventually hopes to establish a child care center, Goodman said.
“We are a private nonprofit, nonreligious, but we have a lovely partnership with the church to think about how we provide services to the community, and the diaper bank is probably the first thing besides the children’s center that we will bring to Lompoc,” she said. “We would love to provide child care and our resource center and diaper bank in Santa Maria, and there hasn’t been a magical opportunity to find space there yet.”
Any resident can host a diaper drive with LEAP’s help and support. Visit leapcentralcoast.org/donate to make a financial donation to purchase diapers, or call (805) 685-6900 to schedule an appointment to pick up diapers or to coordinate a diaper drive.
Highlights
• The Lompoc Public Library invites youth up to 18 to participate in a book character pumpkin contest. Real or fake pumpkins or gourds will be accepted into the contest, and the decoration should be inspired by a book character. Real pumpkins should not be carved or punctured, but they can be painted, and small, non-food accessories may be pasted or glued on. One submission can be made per library patron up to age 18, and decorated pumpkins must be turned in to the library—501 E. North Ave.—by Oct. 23. Patrons can then vote in-person from Oct. 24 to 31; the winner will be announced on Nov. 1. The winner will receive a certificate of achievement and a prize.
• Santa Barbara County received a $4.7 million California Energy Commission grant to develop electric vehicle charging infrastructure. This was the second highest recommended grant award given, which will support the county with its zero-emission vehicle transition by installing 114 level-2 and 36 level-3 charging ports at 14 locations throughout the county. The project requires a $2.3 million match from the county in staff time and capital investment.
Reach Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor at toconnor@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 17-27, 2024.