Alameda County has launched a three-year, $5.8 million Diaper Bank program to provide monthly access to diapers and baby wipes for families with young children over a three-year period.

The initiative is a collaborative effort by the Alameda County Social Services and two nonprofits — SupplyBank.org, which distributes essential goods to low-income families, and First 5 Alameda County, which focuses on pre-kindergarten children. The Diaper Bank Program is funded by Alameda County and First 5 Alameda.

They will distribute over 15 million diapers and 37 million baby wipes through more than 50 community-based organizations and county agencies. Distribution sites include family resource centers, libraries, WIC centers, school districts, health clinics and hospitals. Diaper distributions are integrated into existing wraparound services.

According to a statement from Supply Bank, diaper need results in approximately 40,000 visits to California hospitals annually, 80 percent of which are to the emergency room. One in two families in the U.S. now struggles to afford diapering supplies.

A 2021 study in the Journal of Pediatrics reported that an estimated 36% of parents endorsed diaper need. Diaper dermatitis (rash) and urinary tract infection were associated with parents having insufficient diapers to keep a baby clean, dry and healthy.

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.