Diaper bank offers support from Nackawic to Perth-Andover
BY CONNOR BARRY
A new community service is aiming to fill a needed gap for young families struggling to pay for diapers and supplies, especially for toddlers.
“Back when [my youngest] wasn’t [potty trained], we struggled with diapers and pull-ups and not having them all the time,” said Sara Rennie, head of the Woodstock NB Diaper Bank. “We would reach out to organizations for help, but they would never carry the bigger sizes, or they hardly ever get donations of the bigger sizes… That was part of the reason why I wanted to open [the bank] up.”
The bank, which opened just a few weeks ago, has received many donations from community members and begun providing needed supplies to families.
“But we still need more of the sizes to have in stock to be able to help everybody in need,” Rennie said.
The bank seeks to fill a gap left by the Valley Food Bank and the Valley Resource Centre, which do not provide pickup or drop-off services on weekends or in the evenings.
This lack of service could leave some families without needed supplies if they couldn’t access those resources because of work or other commitments.
The bank seeks to provide support to local families from Nackawic to Perth-Andover with drop-off and pick-up locations in Canterbury, Nackawic, Woodstock, and Perth-Andover.
This is only possible with the support of others who have joined Rennie in her pursuit of this goal.
“I’ve had two incredible volunteers that stepped up and that have helped me with a lot of things, Brianna and Savannah, and they’ve been fantastic [and] they have helped promote it,” said Rennie.
They are also willing to travel to pick up diapers and other materials, or to drop them off, depending on each family’s needs.
The bank is seeking donations of size 5 diapers and all sizes of pull-ups, especially the larger ones.
Anyone interested in donating to the bank is asked to contact them through the Woodstock NB Diaper Bank page on Facebook.
Rennie encourages anyone seeking support through the bank to contact her via the Facebook page for the Woodstock NB Diaper Bank.
