Area residents will have the ability to help young families by eating at the Corner Deli in Jacksonville today.
Ten percent of sales today at the deli, located at 700 South Diamond Street, is going towards District 117’s Early Years Program’s diaper bank.
Early Years Program Coordinator Kelly Ballard says this benefits new families who are unable to afford or have an immediate need for diapers: “Our 0-3 Home Visiting Team runs a community diaper bank. This is for both community members as well as our home-visited families to utilize. We started it in 2021. When we first started the diaper bank, we knew that 1 in 3 families in the nation had a need for diapers. It’s actually changed in the last year to 1 in 2 families that need those. We are very well used. We can’t use a lot of grant funding for our diaper bank, so we rely on the community and getting the word out to anyone that is able to donate. It’s really helpful us to make sure that we can maintain it.”
Any family living in District 117’s boundaries can be referred to the diaper program and to Early Years. Per month, the program is able to provide 25 diapers per child to families. The diapers are available during operation hours at the Early Years offices and through the Home Visitors. So far this school year, over 5,100 diapers have been provided to families, with nearly 11,000 diapers provided last school year.