Reba Robinson, the pantry coordinator at Friends and Neighbors Community Choice Food Center in Coolville, said she’s torn between feelings of generosity and fear. She wants to help struggling families, but her inventory is shrinking.
Canned goods, toiletries, household basics and even diapers are on short supply.
“This is what we have,” Robinson said, pointing at seven small packages of diapers. “And this is it.”
It’s a daunting reality, she said, because some in Athens County have to choose between paying bills or picking up diapers for a child, underscoring an overarching theme of poverty in Southeast Ohio; policy decisions made in Columbus have tangible effects in scores of ways.
Robinson said there are seven packages of 12 diapers that will have to last the food pantry and its patrons until Nov. 13, when the pantry will restock for the next month.
With about four families coming in each day looking for diapers, the diminutive inventory is not nearly enough to last, she said, adding that families are limited to two packs each month.
In the past, there were other places in Athens County where struggling parents could get diapers for free, but Robinson said resources there have dried up.
This shortage of diapers for impoverished families is a dilemma many in Athens County don’t realize exists, said Nick Claussen, spokesman for Athens County Department of Job and Family Services.
“Food and shelter get a lot of attention but anyone who has a child knows how hard it is to pay for diapers, especially if you don’t have a stable place to live,” Claussen said.
Stacy Jackson knows this struggle firsthand.
Jackson, who is receiving federal cash assistance, volunteers at the pantry. She has a two-year-old daughter, Novea, who is now being potty-trained.
Novea using fewer diapers comes as a huge relief for Jackson, who said she still has to make one pack of Pull-Ups last for an entire month.
“I don’t have to worry about scraping up money for diapers,” Jackson said. “I’d have to pick between bills and diapers.”
But at one point, Jackson said she came to Athens Community Church on a weekly basis to get enough diapers for Novea.
“It’s one of those things as a parent,” Jackson said. “You’ll go through anything for your kids.”
With cuts to food stamps taking effect this month, Robinson said she expects to see more parents struggle with their budgets.
And when this happens, she said diapers could be the first things to go, adding that this cycle of curtailing funding for food and cash assistance programs has magnified the problem in recent years.
Until the government puts more money into the pockets of these parents, Robinson said she’ll have to find a way to help as many families as she can.
“I’d like to give them a whole box (of diapers), but I can’t,” she said, because “if they can’t take care of their children, then they’re going to lose their children. … It’s scary.”
@SamuelHHoward
sh335311@ohiou.edu
