Jewish Food Pantry partners with STL Area Diaper Bank

Jewish Family & Children’s Service (JF&CS) has announced a new collaboration between the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry and the St. Louis Area Diaper Bank, a new nonprofit organization.

The partnership with the St. Louis Area Diaper Bank, which provides diapers to families through organizations across the St. Louis community, will use the food pantry as a distribution center and to store diapers. In return the diaper bank will give the pantry 3,000 diapers a month, which will serve 120 families per month. 

“We are very excited with this new partnership with the St. Louis Area Diaper Bank,” says food pantry Director Judy Berkowitz.  “Many of our 7,000 clients need more than just food and one of those items we see the highest need for is diapers. This partnership will allow us the opportunity to offer clients a necessity we previously could not always provide.”

Diaper need, experienced by 1 in 3 working families across the country, is the experience of not having a clean diaper when one is needed. Consequences of diaper need range from severe diaper rash in children to emotional problems such as chronic stress and depression in parents. 

 “We know from the research that parents across the country find it more distressing not to be able to afford diapers than not being able to afford food,” says Jessica Adams, founder and director of the diaper bank.  “Thanks to places such as the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry, food is relatively easy to get. However, if someone needs diapers there is really no place to go and that is the problem we aim to address.”