COVID-19 exposes our inability to meet the basic needs of women and children | Opinion – NJ.com

By Carolyn “Cookie” Mason

As the owner of a boutique bridal and event design firm, I have planned and attended my fair share of baby showers. Games like “Dialing for Diapers,” “The Dirty Diaper Game” and the “The Diaper Toss” were staples at almost every shower I attended.

Without fail, diapers were requested on almost every baby registry regardless of the income bracket of the parents and for good reason. You simply cannot have too many of them and they are, by any measure, not cheap.

According to the National Diaper Network, an average baby uses between 8-12 diapers per day, which can total between $70 and $80 per month per child.

There has always been an unmet need for diapers for low-income families. However, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, the need soared. Panic buying and hoarding made diapers scarce and even more expensive.

As it has been shown in so many areas already, the pandemic exposed the fault lines in our nation’s already broken system. It revealed that we have been unable to meet the basic needs of our nation’s children in a way that provides both dignity and emotional well-being to parents and economic security to families.

Similarly, the pandemic further revealed our country’s deep inequities as it relates to the affordability of and the lack of access to feminine products for low-income families.

Sadly, women have been forced to use makeshift menstrual supplies such as rags, tissues, toilet paper or paper towels taken from public restrooms because they could not afford to pay for diapers and feminine hygiene products.

The pandemic has left families vulnerable and exposed with little to no viable alternatives to help them navigate this unprecedented situation.

While programs like WIC (Women, Infants and Children) and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) certainly have offered some emergency relief, they are prohibited by law from offering diapers or feminine products.

That’s why the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund recently joined with the Community FoodBank of New Jersey (CFNBJ), Fulfill, and the Food Bank of South Jersey for a fundraising campaign to raise $550,000.

If we meet our fundraising goal, we can distribute 3.25 million diapers and 502,000 menstrual pads directly to clients over the coming months. A $50 donation can provide 170 diapers to families in need or 12 women with a 24-pack of menstrual pads. As we mark National Diaper Needs Awareness Week, it’s a perfect opportunity to show support for women by donating to the initiative at njprf.org.

I have been fortunate to have always had access to diaper and feminine products both as a child growing up in Jersey City and now as a mother of a teenage daughter and a teenage son. Yet, I am acutely aware of the fact that there are many who have not been so fortunate.

As the president of the Greater Essex County Chapter of Jack and Jill of America Inc., a mother’s organization for African-American children, and a member of the Pi Theta Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., I am especially conscious of my role as a Black woman to advocate for Black women and girls, in particular.

Given the way in which the lack of access to and affordability of diaper and feminine care products have disproportionately affected African Americans and other communities of color, I know that our initiative has the capacity to make an impact in the lives of many families.

Having the capacity to parent one’s child with confidence because you have enough diapers to keep your child healthy and to show up in the world as a confident, strong, empowered and dignified woman leads to a more economically stable female workforce, less disparity in health outcomes for women and happier families.

This is not the time for games but, if we’re going to play one, let’s make sure it’s Domino Diapers and not Dialing for Diapers. Let’s do our part to make sure that the first domino that falls is the one that does not consider these items to be essential needs. In doing so, it will trigger a chain reaction that will, hopefully, activate a catalytic shift in our mindset to recognize these items as being essential to the health, dignity, well being and economic vitality of all families.

Carolyn “Cookie” Mason is a member of the board of the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund, a non-profit organization created to address the health and economic crisis in New Jersey caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

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