TRF = The Rebecca Foundation (learn more about its collapse)

Started on their own since July 1, 2018.

Nichole is a special education teacher with a 3-year-old. She always wanted kids but didn’t expect it to be as hard as it was. Over the years they fell on hard times when she lost her job and became a single income family. Diapers for Delmarva is done on the side to her special education job.

Renee hosts a lot of the local mom groups and is a Doula.

6:10 – Focus on the Community is why they’ve switched to Diapers for Delmarva

They run under Mamaste Doula because non-profit status is expensive an upwards of $3,500 USD)

Foundation was in a cloth diaper need, but they do have both cloth and disposable products in a variety of products for menstruation and diapering (and even more).

Over the past few months (2.5 months), they have moved 500 products to families in the local area to support the community.  They loan 10-12 pads, and 18 cloth diaper changes for over a year, and 21-24 for newborns. They give a pack at a time of disposables at a time.

9:18 Renee Joined

Renee is a doula and has a 3-year-old!

9:56 Where did your passion for diaper need start?

Renee: In the doula world, she wanted to address the needs of the community including the lack of cloth diaper education and she’s making that happen in the birth continue. Renee met Nichole and then that’s what unravelled and connected to end diaper need in their community.

There is a huge need for diapers in the local area and in the United States.

Nichole: she was the number and had diaper need because of her experience being that girl bouncing checks over diapers. There had to be more people like her and to find them. It’s not just diaper need, everyone has a need (13:08)

They will do there best to do as much as they can in their community.

13:50 – Ways that people can work in their community’s to address local needs?

It is hard.

They moved past the Rebecca Foundation because it was bigger than them and they wanted to know their families and touch their families and be involved in the community.

They are really intertwined in their community – it comes down to grassroots involvement.

It starts small, even with just 5 people.

It’s little ideas and things that plant seeds that grow.

Even the small things are the big things.

It’s very personal – if you are working in your community then you need to be involved and in that community. 

18:50 – How do you break down the taboo and conversation around diaper need?

Nichole: blessed in that the community allows for them to post and tap into those resources to share in certain groups and share across social media.

Putting a face on the taboo – and talking about the hardships and struggles they’ve endured.

21:11 – Biggest Challenge Running Diapers for Delmarva

They would love to scale it to make it their full-time jobs, but not at this time because it’s balancing everything and being their full-time lives while doing this.

23:30 How can we help Diapers for Delmarva?

They need funding to get non-profit status that can help them transition into a more permanent place.

Helping with fundraising, finding corporate sponsors. , etcetera.

25:00 what’s the benefit of going non-profit?

there are a couple things, like being able to give donation receipts, they can apply for federal grants to purchase supplies and storage location. There are a lot of perks to non-profit status that would be a great end goal.

With a non profit status you can also tap into the national Diaper Bank and there are a lot of things they can’t participate in.