Community Corner
LA Diaper Drive Donates 100,000 Diapers
The local group donates diapers to six Los Angeles-area organizations Wednesday.
Caroline Kunitz gathered together with a few volunteers in the driveway of her Santa Monica home Wednesday morning to hand out diapers to groups that help needy families in the Los Angeles area. And this was no small operation. Kunitz, co-founder of Pacific Palisades-based nonprofit organization LA Diaper Drive, handed out nearly 100,000 diapers.
Inspired by the fact that low-income moms have to choose between buying diapers or food on a daily basis, Kunitz and former Palisadian Melissa Ratcliff came up with the idea for the organization. The mission of LA Diaper drive is to collect diapers and then pass them along to other nonprofit organizations. Those organizations distribute the diapers to qualifying low-income households.
"In total, the LA Diaper Drive charity partners with 22 different organizations to relay diapers to mothers and families in need," said Kunitz.
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Since Huggies had recently donated 100,000 diapers to Kunitz, she was able to call her partnering organizations with some good news. After talking with the organizations she determined six groups needed the diapers the most: Beyond Shelter in Los Angeles, Friends of the Family in Van Nuys, The Help Group's Project SAFE, Best Babies Collaborative in West Covina, Black Infant Health and AltaMed Youth Services in Long Beach. Representatives from each group packed up their cars Wednesday to bring the donations back to their offices and clients.
"Sometimes, if we do not have a donor for diapers, we use our donated funds to buy diapers from Valor, a generic diaper brand, at an incredible discount," said Kunitz. "We do our best to try and meet the requests and needs of the organizations, but sometimes we just have to give them whatever size diapers we have."
Crystal Sanders, the case manager supervisor of Best Babies Collaborative, said the organization distributes the donations from LA Diaper Drive by looking at each families' needs.
"Our particular organization only gives to women or families that are of low-income and have high risk pregnancies," said Sanders. "There are several qualifications for a high risk pregnancy: diabetes, hypertension, domestic violence, substance use, tobacco use, previous poor birth experience, African-American mothers, teenagers, pre-mature or low weight."
Once a family qualifies for help, Best Babies Collaborative appoints one of five case managers to watch over the entire pregnancy, according to Sanders. Perhaps by nature of the job, the case managers also often get involved in many aspects of the client's life, she added.
"We have 76 active clients. It is because our case managers care so much and wear so many hats that our program is as successful as it is," said Sanders, who has been working with Best Babies Collaborative for 11 years.
Kunitz recently in October at a nonprofit competition. Something she said felt like winning an Academy Award.
Kunitz is hoping to have LA Diaper Drive's first fundraiser in 2012.
Find out what's happening in Pacific Palisadeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
- For more information about LA Diaper Drive, including how to donate or volunteer, click here.
- For the story about LA Diaper Drive winning $80,000,
- For information about Beyond Shelter, click here.
- For information about Friends of the Family, click here.
- For information about Project SAFE, click here.
- For information about Best Babies Collaborative, click here.
- For information about Black Infant Health, click here.
- For information about AltaMed Youth Services, click here.
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