Higher inflation is forcing some Missourians to choose between paying the bills or buying everyday essentials. Lutheran Family and Children’s Services of Missouri is sounding the alarm about an issue facing many young families – a diaper shortage.
Heather Wall is Director of Parenting Services.
“That’s a really heartbreaking choice to have to even think about cause of the financial burden, the cost of diapers is so high right now,” she said. “I couldn’t even imagine myself, and I have teenagers, what it would be like to have to provide diapers for them right now with the way the economy is.”
The organization’s offices are actively seeking diaper donations of all sizes and brands, including those that your child no longer needs.
“When you look at just for the cost a month, it’s exceeding $100,” Wall said. “For a box of diapers, it’s close to like $45 to $50. You can try to get brands that are not name brand and it’s a little bit less and the prices vary by the size of diaper. When they get into the larger sizes, there’s actually less diapers in that box.”
A lack of funding is depleting diaper banks across the state, which is key to distributing diapers to struggling parents.
“The shortage comes from not the supply chain,” she explained. “It comes from the amount of money being donated to say diaper banks where they can get diapers at a lower cost than if you were to go to a store and purchase them in the boxes in which they are packaged.”
According to the National Diaper Bank Network, one in two U.S. families struggles with diaper needs.
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