ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) — Around one-third of families living in southwest Virginia struggle to avoid diapers, which can cost up to $100 per month on average statewide, according to the National Diaper Bank Network.
That’s why Huddle Up Moms in Roanoke is working to establish a regional diaper bank, which would be the first in the southwest corner of the state.
The bank would allow families to access diapers, along with things like baby wipes and clothes without the financial burden.
“Those 25, 50 diapers that [families] are coming to pick up gets them to the next paycheck and takes a lot of that stress and anxiety off their plate,” said Huddle Up Moms director of support Hannah Goodman.
Huddle Up Moms is a nonprofit that provides resources, education, and community for local mothers.
In 2022, they launched a support shop out of their Roanoke headquarters that has acted like a diaper bank over the past several years.
The resource has grown in popularity, seeing a massive spike in utilization over the past year.
At the outset of 2023, the shop was providing diapers for 40 to 50 families per month.
Through the first three weeks of 2025, they had already received 200 requests, leading them to pursue the creation of an expanded, full-scale diaper bank that would allow them to serve more families.
“We know that the numbers are going to grow and that’s what we want to happen,” said Goodman. “So, our goal is to drive to expand out and be able to reach so many more mothers.”
They received a $100,000 grant from the Roanoke Women’s Foundation for the bank and are now fundraising an additional $120,000 to fund things like a bulk diaper purchase, a bigger location for distribution and storage, and association fees to become a certified diaper bank.
“This $120,000 push is not only to sustain the diaper bank and keep in going for years to come, but to reach out and help those mothers in the New River Valley, Franklin County, and southwest Virginia as a whole,” said Goodman.
There are hundreds of thousands of families across the region in need of services like this, some of which are as far as a two-hour drive away from the nearest diaper bank as it stands right now.
“We know that there’s about 700,000 families in the southwestern Virginia area that deal with this type of issue of not being able to get their needs met,” said Goodman.
Huddle Up Moms hopes to have the new bank open by April 2025.