Not on any benefit card: one in two families struggles with diaper need, and no federal program, including SNAP and WIC, provides funding for families to buy diapers, according to the National Diaper Bank Network.

A parent can use SNAP benefits to buy bread, milk and baby food at the grocery store. At the checkout, the diapers go on a separate bill.

"No federal government program, including SNAP ... and WIC ... provides funding for families to purchase diapers," the National Diaper Bank Network notes. Its Diaper Check 2023 report found that 1 in 2 families struggles with diaper need.

Soap, toothpaste, deodorant and period products follow the same pattern. They aren’t food, so they fall outside the programs families use for groceries, and they come out of the same tight budget as rent and gas.

Why diapers are different

Diapers can’t be stretched the way a pantry box can. A baby needs them every day, and children move up a size every few months, so a family’s need keeps changing even when its budget doesn’t.

That makes them one of the clearest examples of what gifts in kind do. When diaper banks, church closets and community distribution sites hand a family a pack of the right size, they are covering a cost that no benefit program touches. For a parent, a full pack of the right size means one less hard choice at the register that week.

Where generosity fills the gap

Diaper drives, donated product and grants keep these shelves stocked. Drives do the most good when they’re specific. A request for "sizes 4 and 5" brings in more of what families need than a request for "diapers."

A few other habits make drives easier to run: ask for unopened packages, list sizes on the flyer, set a drop-off window volunteers can staff, and share a photo of the full shelves afterward so donors can see what they made possible.

Corporate donors have another reason to give: diapers donated for the care of infants can qualify for the enhanced deduction we described in The Enhanced Deduction. A manufacturer or retailer holding a discontinued package design can turn that inventory into a tax benefit and a full shelf at the same time.

Knowing what’s on the shelf

Being specific requires knowing what you have. GracePoint identifies each donated item from a photo at intake and keeps inventory current, so a coordinator can see what’s running low before the next drive and ask donors for exactly that. For warehouses that supply many partner sites, the same view helps surplus move: newborn sizes piling up at one location may be exactly what a partner across town is short on, and GracePoint’s charitable exchange lets organizations offer that surplus to each other.

Donors who give diapers can also hear where they went. GracePoint turns the intake record into a donor impact story, with families’ personal information kept out of it, so a company or congregation can see that its drive reached real households.

If your community held a diaper drive next month, would you know which sizes to ask for?

Sources: National Diaper Bank Network, "Fast Facts: Diaper Need" (June 2023) and Diaper Check 2023.