Helping Mamas collects and distributes essential baby and child items and period products through 150+ agency partners across Georgia, including Atlanta partners such as Intown Cares, Atlanta Mission, Center for Black Women’s Wellness and more.
The nonprofit will host a new community drive to collect diapers from March 17-28, with multiple drop-off locations throughout the city. Larger diapers (sizes 3-6) are the most needed, according to the organization.
“We will also have a community drop-off time on Saturday, March 22, from 10 a.m. to noon at our warehouse and other locations,” Helping Mamas Chief Advancement Officer Stephanie Ungashick said.
If you can’t attend the community drive, scan the QR code or visit this link and the diapers will be shipped directly to Helping Mamas.
“A lot of people in poverty don’t have access to diapers and period products,” Helping Mamas Executive Director and Founder Jamie Lackey said.
Lackey, a former social worker, started the nonprofit “because there was no coordinated effort or public assistance programs to get those items to low income families in an efficient way.”
“When you don’t have diapers, you can’t go to child care, you can’t go to work,” Lackey said. “Access to basic needs matters – it helps move families forward. And research shows that one in five low-income menstruators has missed school or work due to lack of access to period products.
Since its founding in 2014, Helping Mamas has served 460,000+ children and distributed more than eight million diapers, more than three million period products, and other baby supplies throughout Georgia and Knoxville, TN. Annually, they serve an average of 100,000 individuals with 3.5 million items.
To accommodate the growing demand, Lackey said the nonprofit has gotten creative with how they distribute the items. Helping Mamas works with health departments, hospitals, schools and library systems that have set up their own pantries and closets and have social workers on staff to connect people to other programs and resources while they pick up baby or period products.
“Sometimes family are reluctant to share what they are going through, but they’ll come share it at the library,” Jovita D. Fenwick, Fulton County Library System Social Services Program Manager, said “A mom at Central Library literally broke down crying, saying ‘sometimes I have to choose between groceries and diapers, now that it’s available at the local library, I won’t have to make that choice anymore’.”
Helping Mamas also has three vans that fan out across metro Atlanta, where the need is high and they have a partner agency, for distribution events to provide people with emergency resources and connection to other programs and services.
Last December, Atlanta City Councilman Jason Winston hosted his second distribution event at Carver YMCA.
“It was barely 30 degrees,” Winston recalled. “To see kids and their moms bundled up to receive a few weeks worth of resources motivated me to do more. I’ve taken it upon myself to be an ambassador for Helping Mamas because there is a great demand.” Winston previously hosted a diaper drive in his district with 10 businesses that yielded 7,000 diapers.
This work is more critical than ever. National research in 2023 found that half of all families experience “diaper need” defined as lack of sufficient supply to keep kids clean and healthy. According to Lackey, 30% of them are middle class families who don’t qualify for programs and services.
“The population who needs help is a much wider range of folks,” Lackey said. “So staying in stock with all of the items and not having to say no when people need help is our biggest challenge.”
The nonprofit also advocates for the removal of sales tax on diapers and period products and funding in the Georgia state budget for diaper banks.
“It Is so much more than a box of diapers for these families,” Lackey said. “It’s about the hope that it gives. It’s an open door for economic stability.”
