Photo Courtesy of Annemarie Conte
Annemarie Conte of the SOMA Mothers & More brings diaper donations to the Sierra House in East Orange.
MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Making the choice between food or a clean diaper for a child is never easy, and the local chapter of Mothers & More recently held a diaper drive to alleviate the need to choose for one local women’s home.
The South Orange/Maplewood Mothers & More held the drive during April and May, placing collection boxes at public locations throughout the two towns, as well as at two private locations. Once the drive had ended, the diapers were donated to East Orange’s Sierra House, a transitional living home for young women.
This year’s collection efforts resulted in more than 7,700 diapers, more than double the 3,500 diapers collected during last year’s drive.
In an interview with the News-Record, Annemarie Conte, the SOMA M&M community outreach chairperson, said a few factors had contributed to the success of this year’s drive.
“In addition to local businesses in the community, we were also able to place boxes at two day care facilities,” Conte said. “Many times, when parents would come to pick up their children they would place their extra diapers in there.”
The two day care facilities were Village Babies Development Center in South Orange and the South Mountain YMCA Childcare in Maplewood. The other drop-off locations in the community included The Rack and Village Coffee, both in Maplewood, and the UPS Store and Munchie’s Take a Lickle Taste, both in South Orange.
Mothers & More is a national organization, and this local chapter boasts approximately 500 members, who hail from the two towns and the surrounding areas. Conte said there are many subgroups within the organization, including stroller rollers, book clubs, moms of twins and collection drives.
“The national organization does a diaper drive every year, but it’s up to each chapter to decide what that means to them, and who they want to select as a recipient,” Conte said.
For families struggling to make ends meet, the choice between putting food on the table or having the appropriate amount of diapers for a child is a nearly impossible one.
“Mothers & More members find great value in advocating to improve mothers’ lives, so this diaper drive allows us to do just that, to work together as a community to help better the lives of low-income moms, as well as call attention to a real problem affecting too many mothers,” Conte said.
“I think people are inherently good and want to help, and it is directly tangible,” Conte continued. “You can understand the stress of not having clean diapers for your baby. With money you don’t exactly know where it’s going.”
The importance of clean diapers for a child is a sentiment also echoed by Keely Freeman, the executive director of Sierra House. Sierra House is a transitional home for women between the ages of 18 and 25, serving single women, mothers and expectant mothers.
In an interview with the News-Record, Freeman expressed her sincere gratitude for the diaper donation to her organization.
“At any given time there are up to 20 women and children living here,” Freeman said. “We’re really fortunate that they chose to donate to us because there are many shelters in the area that could have been picked.”
Freeman said the collection drives done by groups like Mothers & More are what help to fill the gap of need for the residents of Sierra House.
“The average person stays at Sierra House for six to 12 months, depending on their situation when they enter the program,” Freeman said. “When you’re a homeless mother, something like Pampers makes a big difference. Then you don’t have to spend all day worrying about where you’re going to get some.”