ONE MILLION DIAPERS: From left, HomeFront Founder and CEO Connie Mercer, New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy, HomeFront client Miracle Charles, and HomeFront COO Sarah Steward stand in front of the HomeFront Diaper Resource Center in Ewing at the  May 10 celebration of the successful Diaper Challenge, for which community members collected more than a million diapers between March and Mother’s Day to help local babies and parents in need. (Photo courtesy of HomeFront)

By Donald Gilpin

The ambitious original goal for the HomeFront Diaper Challenge was 250,000 diapers and wipes to be collected between March and Mother’s Day this year.  But after an overwhelming response from the community, including diaper drives by schools, churches, and neighborhood groups, HomeFront increased the goal to 500,000 about four weeks ago.

“We’re here to open the door,” said HomeFront COO Sarah Steward, standing in front of the warehouse doors at the Monday, May 10, Diaper Challenge World Record Event at the HomeFront Family Campus in Ewing. The doors opened to reveal more than one million diapers and wipes piled high. “It’s an incredibly generous community,” Steward added, “ so thank you all for that, and thanks to the partnerships to make sure all moms have access to diapers and wipes.”

Tammy Murphy, New Jersey first lady and keynote speaker for the celebration, expressed her gratitude to HomeFront “as a key partner in our mission to support New Jersey mothers and babies,” and pointed out that HomeFront has already distributed more than 630,000 diapers and wipes to families in central New Jersey since 2018.

“This has served as a lifeline to moms struggling to make ends meet, and especially for those hit hard by the pandemic,” she said. “It has been a critically important resource. The financial relief that a reliable source of diapers provides can make a world of difference. It really is an extraordinary achievement that HomeFront collected more than 300,000 in the last week. This has been beyond wonderful.” 

Murphy discussed HomeFront’s partnership with Nurture NJ, a statewide awareness campaign that she launched in 2019, which is committed to reducing infant and maternal mortality and ensuring equity in care and outcomes for all mothers and infants in New Jersey.  “And if you don’t already know that New Jersey has a maternal health crisis,” she said, “I’m going to share with you some really disturbing statistics. In New Jersey, a Black mother is seven times more likely than a white mother to die from maternity-related complications. A Black baby is three times more likely than a white baby to die before his first birthday. You can’t hear that and not be appalled.”

She went on to point out that Nurture NJ’s strategic plan for maternal and infant health, released last January, includes “70 specific, actionable steps to achieve our vision.” Emphasizing the state’s partnership with HomeFront in making “New Jersey the safest and most equitable place in the nation to deliver and raise a baby,” Murphy added, “We have a lot of work ahead, but knowing that we already have partners like HomeFront ready to work with us, as they’ve already done with the My Baby and Me program, makes it all the more certain that we will not only resolve this crisis but make New Jersey the gold standard and national leader in maternal health.”

Also speaking at the half-hour celebration were HomeFront client Miracle Charles, who told of how important HomeFront and its diaper program had been to her in raising her baby, and HomeFront founder and CEO Connie Mercer, who emphasized the lasting effects of trauma and homelessness on infants and toddlers. Mercer pointed out that one in three families in the country can’t afford enough diapers to keep their babies dry and healthy.

Mercer explained that the Diaper Resource Center provides access to diapers to help avoid unmet needs that can lead to consequences for babies and parents.  “We have seen the most horrific cases of diaper rash because parents change on a set schedule as opposed to when there’s need because they just don’t have enough. The kind of shame that women feel, that a parent feels, when they can’t keep a baby clean is overwhelming.”

Day care programs require diapers, Mercer added, and most say the parents have to provide them. “This is about helping parents work,” she said. “If children need access to disposable diapers to attend a day care program, without those diapers, parents can’t go to work. Child care is a critical link to help families get to work, and diapers are a key part of that.”

During the pandemic, in addition to the distribution of diapers, HomeFront has delivered more than $740,000 in rental assistance, provided dignified housing for 536 individuals (most of them children), distributed more than half a million meals, and continued their jobs, education, and children’s programs.