Southern Living Magazine Spotlight

MICHELLE OLD’S eyes were opened to the huge need for diapers after adopting her youngest child. “He was very sick for the first year and a half,” she says of her son, who is now 11 years old. “We were changing him 30 to 40 times a day, but he’d still end up in the emergency room with diaper rashes. His body could not fight off any type of infection or irritation.”

The mother of three recognized it was a privilege to be able to provide the hygienic care he needed, and she devoted herself to ensuring other parents could do the same. She started small, packing a laundry hamper full of diapers into a van and donating them around Durham. Her goal that first year was to give away 50,000. In the decade since, Old’s organization, the Diaper Bank of North Carolina, has created four centers across the state and supplied more than 23 million diapers to residents. “One in three families in the United States lacks access to clean diapers,” explains Old. “Government programs like WIC and SNAP (or food stamps) don’t cover them, and they can cost over $100 a month. People are literally choosing between buying groceries or diapers.” Old says that when parents and guardians are in this situation, they pick food first. That is a decision she doesn’t want families to face. Her organization partners with food pantries, other nonprofits, and schools so those who need hygiene supplies (including period and adult-incontinence products) receive them. If you’re interested in launching a similar effort in your own community, Old advises starting small. “It’s as simple as putting up a collection box, spreading the word to your network, gathering diapers or other resources, and picking a program to distribute those items through,” she says.