Welcome The Poop Readers!

Thanks for stopping by to learn more about our project! We are indebted to Mike Adamick who interviewed us and also to our very own Julie Michelle, for sharing our campaign with Mike!

Now, let’s talk Poop.

• Learn more about the diaper issue by reading our Diapers 101 post.
• Virtual Diaper Drive: If you’d like to buy some diapers and ship them directly to one of our partner agencies, check out our list of Northern California agencies, then follow the Amazon.com links.
• Download our free diaper drive toolkit for ideas on how to host your own diaper drive.
• You can also drop off diapers at any one of our drop bin locations.
• Join us March 28th at Natural Resources for an Infant & Toddler Clothing Swap.  Admission is a pack of diapers. Bring your kid’s clothes and swap them for the size you need!
• Save The Date: Mother’s Day Diaper Drive.
• Stay in touch with us via Facebook and Twitter.

We continue to be surprised and awed by the amount of community support given to our project. We’d be delighted if you checked back from time to time and kept in touch with our campaign. If you have any questions or want to help more, check out our FAQ first and then write to us: info at helpamotherout dotorg.

Important: Do you need diapers? While HAMO does not distribute directly to individuals, we encourage you to look over our list of Northern California partners. Many of our partners distribute emergency diapers to individuals  in need as do some local church food pantries. Our partners also have many different services for families in need. Please contact them directly for assistance or Dial 2-1-1 to get more information on an agency nearest you.

Just days before I was contacted by a desperate employee of a Bay Area family shelter. Eight babies had recently come through their doors and they were desperate for diapers. After pitching the idea to the school’s director, we decided that doing a good deed for these babies would be a great opportunity for the kids to directly help others.

The week before the diaper drive I came to school and made a little presentation to the kids. Let me just say: they were a hard crowd! I started off by asking them a few questions:

How many of you remember wearing diapers?

How many of you have a baby brother or sister at home?

Do they wear diapers?

Do they cry when they need their diapers changed?

We talked about how babies can get sad and uncomfortable when they need their diaper changed and how babies sometimes don’t have enough diapers. We talked about how sharing is important and that it feels good to help others. Their assignment for the next week was to bring a pack of diapers to school to put in our donation bin.

At the end of the week, the preschool  collected 1000 diapers!

The kids were so supportive of the drive that they bragged about which diaper packs they had brought for the babies and had fun piling them into the bin.

At the end of the drive we donated the diapers to Fesco Family Shelter. They were surprised and thrilled to get the delivery!

I’m bringing the preschool some of the photos so they can hang them up in the classroom and talk about the good deed they did together. It was so much fun sharing the cause with them. Preschoolers get it!

To all of you out there who have preschool age children – will you take the Preschool Challenge? Talk to the school’s director about their plans to engage the kids with public service. You’ll be glad you did and we’d love for you to report back to us on your results!

Special thanks to my child’s preschool director and all the families who contributed!

Father Jim recently wrote a guest column in the Northwest Herald.

Many people ask me why such an obvious human need such as diapers is on the food stamps “taboo” list along with alcohol, tobacco, and pet food. The simple answer is that diapers and other hygiene products – including toilet paper; toothpaste, and tampons – are not food items. Our mission is to ensure that families living in poverty have an adequate supply of diapers for their infants, toddlers and adults. And to raise awareness that “basic human needs” include diapers and that those needs are not being met for children and adults living in poverty.

Even with reformed government policies, it is likely that many of our families within our county, towns, and neighborhoods still will need assistance in affording hygiene products, the same ways that families on food stamps sill suffer from food insecurity.

What do you all think? Are diapers a “basic human need?”

What about the kids who aren’t as well off? How does stress from poverty – including experiencing homelessness, hunger, and lack of other basic needs, affect their development?

Over the weekend the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held their annual meeting. Presented at the meeting was a panel on early childhood poverty and it’s long term affects.

Researchers presented findings that poverty-related stress from birth to age 5 can affect the neurobiology of the child – including how their genes are expressed, how their bodies release of hormones, both of which can have lasting results on physical and mental well being later in life.

One study looked at data from a 40-year demographic study on Americans from different household incomes:

They found “striking differences” in how the children’s lives turned out as adults, depending on whether they were poor or comfortably well-off before the age of six.

“Compared to children whose families had incomes of at least twice the poverty line during their early childhood, poor children complete two fewer years of schooling, work 451 fewer hours per year, earn less than half as much,” the study said.

They also received more than 800 dollars a year more in food stamps as adults, and were more than twice as likely to report poor overall health or high levels of psychological distress, the study said.

Poor children were also fatter than their more affluent counterparts, and were more likely to be overweight as adults.

Interestingly the study found that public policy matters.

The study also found that it was possible to positively shape the futures of poor children, by giving the families of under-fives additional income.

This was associated later in life with significantly higher adult earnings and work hours, and less need for state aid in the form of food stamps, the study found.

“The analysis indicates that policy makers might do well to focus on situations involving deep and persistent poverty early in childhood,” the study said.

We have acute problems today – the ranks of the “new poor” are rising, and family homelessness is on the brink of explosion. But the long term effects won’t be seen for quite some time. Affordable childcare and providing basic needs (food, shelter, healthcare, diapers!) for all children should matter to each and everyone of us.

The question remains, how much are we willing to act on it?

Download our flyer and share with your local parenting group and community bulletin boards!

When: Sunday, March 28, 2 – 5pm
Where: Natural Resources, 1367 Valencia Street (at 25th Street), San Francisco, CA 94110
What: Infant & Toddler Clothing Swap
Who: Natural Resources & Maternity Xchange, to benefit Help a Mother Out (www.helpamotherout.org)
Why: Because baby needs new shoes, and pants, and shirts, and sleepers, and more! Plus, you get a 10% coupon for any shopping you do at Natural Resources the day of the swap
Cost: A package of size 4-6 diapers or pull-up’s OR $10

Natural Resources and Maternity Xchange are offering families all over the Bay Area a chance to exchange gently used (unstained) infant and toddler clothing and at the same time support San Francisco’s most vulnerable families. The event benefits Help a Mother Out (HAMO), a local grassroots campaign whose mission is to help improve the lives of families in need one diaper at a time.
From 2 – 5pm on Sunday, March 28, Natural Resources turns into a swap meet! Bring your child’s clean clothes sized Newborn to 3T and trade them in for the size you need now. Any surplus clothes will be delivered directly to HAMO’s San Francisco partners, Homeless Prenatal Program and APA Family Support Services.

The only entrance fee is a pack of large-size diapers (size 4-6 or Pull-Up’s) for the mothers and children served by our friends at HAMO. If you don’t want to bring diapers, a cash fee of $10 is requested. 100% of funds collected will be put towards purchasing diapers for HAMO’s San Francisco partners.

All participants will receive a 10% off coupon for any shopping they do the day of the swap.

Come one, come all, swap your child’s clothes for more of the same, only bigger!

PLEASE PRE-REGISTER TO ATTEND: Natural Resources & Maternity Xchange Infant & Toddler Clothing Swap

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=327699417237

You can help us spread the word by sharing the event details with your parenting listserv and online community!

Photo courtesy of Kadi Prescott

We hold press conferences about Tiger Woods’s affairs. We give precedence of celebrity scandal over everyday tragedy. And while we flock to our television sets to obsess over the latest gossip,  somewhere in our same city, there is a family who cannot even afford a television. It is quite easy to go about our lives in active ignorance of these people. It makes us uncomfortable to think about them. When we happen upon one of these families in public, it makes us feel guilty and so we look away and tell our kids not to stare. Am I right? I know I do it. It makes me feel sad and helpless to see these people. I know that I cannot possibly help every homeless or impoverished family, so I succumb to the fact that we lead different lives and there is nothing I can do about it. I am right. I can’t possibly help every family in the world, but I can help some of them even if in very small ways.

I took a trip down to Santa Ana last night to help out at an event called Laundry Love. It is a monthly event, occurring all over the United States, designed to help economically disadvantaged families do their laundry. The volunteers provide everything from quarters to dryer sheets. But they also provide much more than that. Take a look at these pictures and let me know if you can figure out what it is that really gets accomplished at these events.

Did you spot what it is that makes these events so wonderful? It is the same thing that a diaper drive creates. It is a thing called HOPE. I interviewed Scott Overpeck, founder of Santa Ana’s chapter of Laundry Love and here is what he had to say about his mission to make a difference in his community:

Scott and the other good people who get involved, are kindred spirits in that they see a need and they choose to take action instead of looking away. They serve as additional proof that there are still people left in this world who believe in the support of community. I am honored to have been invited to join this event and look forward to helping out again next month!

Part of what we hope to do this year is bring you guys closer to the folks who are benefiting from all the diapers you raise. Back in December I received a desperate email from a social worker by the name of La Tanya.

La Tanya found us by chance.  She picked up Parent’s Press, and saw our mention in it. She works with homeless families at the Center for the Vulnerable Child (CVC), run by Children’s Hospital of Oakland (CHO). You wouldn’t believe the lengths she has gone to obtain diapers. If you were in a situation where you needed a social worker, you’d want someone just like her.

So a few days before Christmas, with my car loaded with diapers,  I went to visit La Tanya to learn more about the families the CVC serves.

What is a vulnerable child?

According to CVC, vulnerable children live in environments that may put them at risk for social, educational, physical, or mental health problems. Families facing poverty, unstable housing or substance abuse are just a few examples of vulnerable populations. They include homeless children, families in transition, and foster children.

CVC serves about 450 families annually all over the East Bay including Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond. They even serve foster children who are living as far away as Stockton, since Medi-Cal rules dictate children must continue to receive care (e.g., go to the doctor, see a mental health therapist) in the county they originated from.

As it is with many social workers, diapers are like gold for La Tanya. In the past, she has had to rely on the kindness of personal friends who send gift cards so that she can purchase diapers for her clients. Diapers are so expensive in the Oakland inner city that in the past she has gone to the big box store to personally purchase diapers for her clients.

Some clients have admitted to her they sell their food stamps so they can afford diapers. Some of her clients have collected aluminum cans to redeem for money to purchase diapers and other hygiene needs. Some clients have admitted to reusing diapers. Many clients are reluctant to even talk about their need for diapers, because they fear agencies like Child Protective Services will take their children away. They are so scared, in fact, that they will neglect to mention it when they come to see the doctor at the free medical clinic.

When she doesn’t have diapers, La Tanya sends her families across town by bus. In west Oakland,  St. Vincent de Paul’s distributes TWO diapers.

We’ve been able to make additional donations to the  CVC due to the support from all of you guys. La Tanya and everyone at the CVC now have supplemental diapers they can give families who are struggling.

Big shout out to our Bay Area contributor, Janice, who has been managing the newest donation point at the Nurture Center in Lafayette and helping to shuttle diapers to places like CVC and WDDC! Thanks Janice!

Photo from http://www.cottonbabies.com/

BIG THANK YOU to a wonderful mom-run enterprise, Cotton Babies for supporting our cause. They must have heard our tweet about how we had found an agency who might have some families who are in a position to use cloth diapers. A few weeks later, the UPS guy came with this amazing donation of 20 Econobum Full Kits ($999 retail value!). The kits, each containing 3 diaper covers and 12 prefolds, will be distributed to a select group of families at our new San Francisco partner agency, APA Family Support Services.

We’ll take a moment to remind you all that our primary mission is to support the work of our partner agencies. With the exception of APA, our partners have told us that the families they assist are not in a position to use cloth diapers. They include families experiencing homelessness (living in shelters or otherwise in transition), lack private laundry facilities, lack adequate transportation to laundry facilities that may or may not accept laundering diapers. It’s a very complicated issue: the economics and geography of poverty and laundering facilities, and subsidized childcare requirements. It is, as they say, expensive to be poor. If you haven’t already read our Diapers 101 post for the 100th time, take a look at it here.

Why APA Family Support Services is a good fit for this pilot option:

1) We have an adequate start up supply of diapers to give each family, thanks to Cotton Babies.

2) Clients are recent immigrants, who may already be using cloth diapering substitutes ( e.g., towels, older children’s underwear) while at home.

3) Clients do most of their laundry by hand

We’re so grateful to have Cotton Babies support our cause by donating this stock of Econobum kits. These diapers will be making a BIG difference in the homes they end up in. Please take a moment to let Cotton Babies know what you think about their donation by posting a comment below.

Hey cloth diapering parents: Check out The Cloth Diaper Foundation (fka Miracle Diapers), a non profit organization that helps families get a jump start on cloth diapering. You can mail them your gently used cloth diapers to be redistributed to qualifying families!

Brownie troop #32688, Richardson Bay Service Unit

THIS is Girl Power

BIG THANK YOU to Brownie troop #32688 of Marin county who recently held a “mini diaper drive” for us! They collected 688 diapers plus 1300 wipes! And how awesome is this: they got together and decorated the diaper packs so the beneficiaries would know someone else was thinking about them! It is such an honor to have local support from girls who want to make a big difference in the lives of struggling families.  We are so grateful for your help!

Interested in Hosting a Spring Diaper Drive?

We are putting out an S.O.S. to community groups who want to follow the lead of Brownie Troop #32688. We really need help with groups hosting mini-drives for us during the month of May! Office pools, MOPS, Moms groups, play groups, Rotary, J-League, Preschools – we WANT YOU! No drive is too small or too big! Please contact us info  at helpamotherout dotorg to learn more.

San Francisco Locals: Help a Mother Become Computer Savvy

One of our charter partner organizations, Homeless Prenatal Program (HPP) currently needs volunteers for their computer lab. If you are local (hey! unemployed techie folks!) please consider volunteering:

HPP is currently looking for bilingual (English/Spanish) computer tutors to help during our normal business hours Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 9am-12pm and 1-5pm, and Tuesday 1-5pm. Our tutors help monitor the computer lab, teach classes, and work one on one with clients who are using the internet to search for jobs and housing, as well as learning to use the computer and e-mail for the very first time.

They would also really love to find a volunteer that is well versed in online resources/communities for mothers that could share these tools with our clients who might be interested in browsing the internet for parenting support in addition to the community services they offer.

Interested volunteers can e-mail scottreed@homelessprenatal.org.

New Bay Area Drop Locations

The wonderful Nurture Center in Lafayette is now an official drop bin. Please help spread the word to Alameda and Contra Costa families!

In the coming weeks San Francisco donors will also be able to drop off diapers at Peekadoodle Kids Club, located in the heart of Ghiradelli Square.

Find a list of all our drop off locations by clicking here.

That’s all for now. We’re working on some amazing things to share with you all in the weeks to come. Stay tuned!

According to a recent Time Magazine article, struggling families have been especially hard hit in the recession:

Meanwhile, unemployment and foreclosure have sent tens of thousands of families into financial free fall. At the beginning of 2009, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities projected that the severe recession and the growth of long-term unemployment would push an additional 1.5 million people into the streets. Asks Roman: “Why should we think that people can get their lives together, get a job, keep their kids in school, when they live in a van or a shelter? It is not reasonable. People need the stability of a home. You need housing to be employed. It’s the platform for everything else.” With long-term unemployment at record highs, Congress is considering providing an additional $1 billion in funding for HPRP as part of a forthcoming jobs bill.

Micro-funds to keep people off the streets and on the road back to self sufficiency. Now THIS is the kind of stimulus we could get behind.

We’d love to hear from folks on the front lines  - what do you think of this program? Do you think providing these types of funds to qualifying individuals works?