There are no true words that can describe how excited I am to be announcing that Giving Diapers, Giving Hope has partnered with GroVia to help even more families get the diapers they need.
Giving Diapers, Giving Hope is a national cloth diaper bank that aims to provide income qualified families with a set of cloth diapers for the cost of shipping. After applying and if approved each family receives diapers for their child(ren) that are shipped to their home. This is where GroVia is stepping in!
When Giving Diapers, Giving Hope began they were a local diaper bank, however the need for cloth diapers wasn’t quite there, but the need nationally was. Knowing that they received more requests from everywhere but their homebase in Gloucester, MA and that the other national diaper bank recently closed their doors they decided to open to all states.
As the years went on the organization saw an increasing interest both in applications and donations. They moved shipping operations to their local YMCA and received volunteer help, but once again they quickly outgrew that space and needed more hands. Kristen and Emily were running things alone, and I could only help remotely with certain tasks.
Over the summer they shut down to applications and used that time to try and find a solution. I’ve been helping them for a while behind the scenes, and was in contact with Kim Ormsby of GroVia. We met in October to discuss various ways GroVia could help. That day is one I will never forget! Kristen, Emily, and myself were unsure if and how the organization would continue without a warehouse for diaper storage and more hands to help sort donations, pack them, and ship them.
Kim offered us exactly that. The Natural Baby Company and GroVia facilities will begin accepting donations on behalf of Giving Diapers, Giving Hope. Employees of TNBC will sort incoming donations and fulfill the packing and shipment of outgoing donations. The team from GDGH will continue running all other aspects including application approval and day to day operations.
I’m telling you guys… I’m crying all over again just writing this out because you have no idea what this means to our organization. It was do or die. Without a solution in sight we wondered if we would have to close down indefinitely. In fact, we were mostly closed for over 6 months to national applications. Between this partnership and the new website that has yet to be built (we didn’t go on with building the new website until we were sure we would continue our work) Giving Diapers, Giving Hope will be able to help many more families!
There are some moments in time you will never, ever forget. The hope, relief, and gratitude all of us felt after this generous offer was made by Kim and the team of GroVia is indescribable. I walked away, sat down in a chair, called Kristen to tell her the offer, and we both cried tears of joy!
We still need your help!
Along with GroVia we have had many other amazing companies support us with donations, both monetary and diapers. The team behind Giving Diapers, Giving Hope wants to assure our past and future donors that our partnership with GroVia will not end these relationships. We know that our organization has the ability to help many families and your contributions are a huge part of that! A large portion of donations are also from individuals who send their cloth diapers that are in good used condition. Cloth diaper donations, both new and used, can she shipped here:
The Natural Baby Company
Attn: GDGH Donations
1203 North Rouse Unit 3E
Bozeman MT 59715
If you no longer have diapers to donate or would like to help in a more tangible way, we are also introducing a new program where you can “Send Hope.” At this time, approved families pay a $35 fee to have the diapers shipped to them; the fee also covers the return shipping back to us when they are finished with them. $35 is still a good deal of money! You can pay for a family’s fee and each time we receive this donation it will be applied to the next approved applicant’s fee! Donations are anonymous to both parties involved. Ready to sponsor a family? Do so here: Sponsor a Box of Hope.
If you or someone you know could benefit from Giving Diapers, Giving Hope they can apply on their website, or if the site won’t load (we are having some problems with it today of all days) directly fill out the application here: https://clothdiapers.wufoo.com/forms/giving-diapers-giving-hope-application/
I want to send a special thank you to a few friends who have helped immensely during this process. Amanda Hearn of Green Child Magazine, Calley Pate of The Eco Chic, and Maria of Change-Diapers. And of course, we owe Kim Ormsby and the team of GroVia the biggest thank you of all for coming to the rescue.
