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Sylvia Helps Launch Branford Diaper Bank

Even though she helped provide supplemental diapers to families through Branford Counseling Center (BCC), it wasn’t until Jennifer Sylvia became a new mom that she truly recognized the importance—and the sheer number—of disposable diapers affecting a child’s health and happiness, and the family budget bottom line.

That’s why Jennifer’s excited to announce the launch of the Branford Diaper Bank on Tuesday, Feb. 13. The bank provides diapers once a month to Branford families in need. It’s a collaboration between BCC, Community Dining Room (CDR), and Branford Early Learning Center (BELC). Beginning Feb. 13, the program will be offered the second Tuesday of each month during CDR’s Tuesday Night Family Dinner (from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.). CDR is located in the Patricia C. Andriole Volunteer Services Center at 30 Harrison Avenue.

Jennifer says the goal is to grow Branford Diaper Bank and its clientele. The bank is an outgrowth of BCC’s current supplemental diaper program, which uses a finite BCC budget to supply 50 diapers a month to about 10 families. All BCC programming is offered as a municipal service of the Town of Branford.

BCC purchases diapers wholesale through Towne Pharmacy to help stretch its budget dollars and will continue to work with Towne Pharmacy as part of Branford Diaper Bank. The supplemental diaper program was operating out of BCC when Jennifer joined the counseling center in 2014, arriving from BHcare as the administrative assistant to BCC’s new executive director, Peter Cimino. Jennifer is now BCC’s executive supervisor.

“The counseling center started, back in 2013, a supplemental diaper program—50 diapers per child, per month, per family,” says Jennifer. “Since then, we’ve actually given out more than 13,000 diapers, which seems like a lot! But after I had my daughter in August of 2016, and I’d been working here, I realized 50 diapers a month—that isn’t getting you anywhere. I’m going through 50 a day!”

From that point on, Jennifer knew something more could be—had to be—done. The question was, how? One of the problems was logistics.

“Because we have very limited storage space [at BCC’s operational center at 342 Harbor Street], we offered it as more of an in-house service for clients, or family of clients that would come to know about it. So it’s storage related, it’s distribution related. We’re not in a great location for people to access easily,” says Jennifer.

The new Diaper Bank space would also need room for more than diapers, because as a mom, Jennifer’s well aware of the related items a baby needs in the diaper department—from wipes to lotions, ointments to soaps.

“So I started thinking about it, and I started talking with Mike Randi, our social services coordinator, who funds the supplemental program from our donations and our Basic Needs account. And we started looking at our numbers and logistically what could we do—how much more could we take on?” says Jennifer. “We needed to find a more central location people could get to easier, and would know about the location already. Who can we utilize in town to do this? And the first person that we thought of was Judy Barron at the CDR. She’s already got the family night set up, so families are coming to her. She’s in a great central location, and they just added on a little bit of storage space.”

In December, 2017, through the generosity of the Donald W. and Carla Grigley Memorial Fund at the Branford Community Foundation, a $22,900 grant given to the Patricia C. Andriole Volunteer Services Center allowed for a room addition to open up operational space shared by CDR, Branford Food Pantry, and BHcare Clothing Bank.

As CDR executive director, Barron’s objective is to provide “more than just a meal” by linking with local community service programs and organizations. Adding Branford Diaper Bank was a perfect fit, she said.

“When someone comes here because of the diaper bank, they’re also going to be able to have access to resources from other programs they may need,” said Barron.

Jennifer says the hope is that, “if you get a family that connects with one program, they may be able to connect with so many others that they may not know about.”

One such program is BELC, a state Department of Education facility providing children of working parents with high-quality, low-cost childcare and early childhood education in a town building at 16 Birch Road. Branford families can apply for assistance from the Diaper Bank by contacting BELC Director Diane Pappacoda at 203-488-4512.

“Judy had the idea to bring in BELC, because Diane’s going to have the majority of families that could really utilize a service like this,” says Jennifer.

Families don’t need to be clients of BCC or BELC to receive Diaper Bank services—any Branford family needing to supplement monthly diaper supplies is welcome, says Jennifer. Through non-profit CDR and BELC, the hope is to apply for grants to help supplement the cost of provisions for the Diaper Bank, but donations from the community, in the form of diapers (sizes 3, 4, and 5 are most needed) and grocery store and/or supercenter store gift cards to purchase diaper-related products are welcome. Both can be dropped off at CDR during operating hours (posted at https://communitydiningroom.wordpress.com).

“I hope it grows,” Jennifer says of the new Branford Diaper Bank, and by that, she means not only in distribution, but in community awareness.

“For me, the most important thing was realizing that diapers are a basic necessity that no child should ever have to go without,” she says. “Our goal is to make sure every child has what they need, and to educate the community that this should be seen as a basic necessity. This shouldn’t be seen as a luxury item.”

Generally, a family with one child in diapers spends $100 per month to provide for their child. Now add another child in diapers, or more, to that family. Then understand families in need can’t purchase diapers using what little supplemental federal and state assistance they may receive through WIC (a special supplemental nutrition program for woman, infants, and children) and SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps), because diapers aren’t considered a basic need by those programs, says Jennifer.

“I just hope the community sees this and realizes it’s something for Branford’s children that other things, like WIC and SNAP, aren’t addressing, and no one suffers but the children,” says Jennifer. “In terms of being a parent myself, I have never thought about how many times a day I would change my daughter’s diaper. To think that there are parents who have to balance that—how many times a day can I change, do I need to set diapers aside to bring them to daycare so I can go to work? So now you’re balancing either not having enough money for something else, or not changing your child as often as you would like to—and how many health concerns come from that? Even soaps, lotions, wipes...as a parent, you don’t want to have to ration. You don’t ever want to use less than you think you should.”