The Moms Helping Moms Foundation of New Jersey tackles poverty
“It’s not just about a baby in a wet diaper.”
So Bridget Cutler, a New Providence resident and founder and co-executive director of the Moms Helping Moms Foundation (MHM), explains the group’s mission.
Diapers and period products are a cog in the wheel of labor that is often overlooked. Without these basic necessities, people miss work and school, causing ever more poverty. Cutler explained that MHM aims to break this cycle of poverty by providing people in need with the products they need across the state.
Cutler said no child should ever go without the basic necessities of life and no parent should ever be put in that position.
MHM is a baby supply, diaper, and period bank founded in 2011. Dedicated to creating a future free from childhood poverty by providing children with the essentials to ensure a safe and healthy start, the nonprofit hosts other fundraising and advocacy campaigns as well as advocacy and promotion of awareness.
One in three families in the United States struggle to buy diapers
Two out of five menstruating females have struggled to purchase menstrual products in the past year, and one out of three women have reported missing work, school, or similar events due to a lack of menstrual supplies. This is known as the poverty period.
With the help of a dedicated staff and 300 volunteers, MHM collects and distributes new and gently used baby items, diapers and period supplies for the Children’s Wellness Program.
This effort helps underprivileged families across New Jersey. Last year, the organization collected and distributed 1,627,122 diapers, period products and essential baby items – an increase of 54% from 2021.
And the need continues to grow.
The concept began with the birth of Cutler’s first child — a daughter — nearly 12 years ago.
Soon after her marriage, Cutler decided to change careers and went back to school to earn a master’s degree in education.
“That was amazing, and I loved it,” she said. “And while I was doing that, I had already given birth to my first daughter, and was pregnant with my second — my son. I was in school and still felt a little ambivalent. I came from a high-stress job in finance — lots of hours — and even though I was pregnant or had a newborn And I’m out of school full time, but my days are still free. I’ve had a kid, but I’ve always been someone who kind of wants to get things done and be useful and all that.”
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I read an article about a new mom who gave her baby up for adoption because she couldn’t afford a baby’s basic needs, like diapers. As she sat there reading and rocking her baby girl to sleep, something clicked.
“Just thinking about it was devastating,” Cutler said. “But I could totally put myself in that place. It was easy to imagine but I can’t imagine how devastating that would be. I started thinking there was something I could do, like now.”
Cutler reached out to her network of friends, many of them from Meet New Moms, where everyone would swap baby items as the babies grew.
“So I was like, maybe we can find other families to get things — and that’s how it started,” she said. “I just started collecting. I reached out to my network and said, ‘Hey, whatever you guys have that you don’t need, give it to me. I’ll donate it.'”
But after collecting the items, Cutler hit a roadblock.
“I couldn’t find any place willing to take these things,” she said. “I quickly realized that there wasn’t any kind of central agency in New Jersey that was giving out free materials to kids. So I just started doing it myself.”
But that didn’t stop her. She continued to hand out items at a garage sale, with flyers advertising children’s items all over Hoboken where she lived.
Other members of the moms’ group joined in the effort and one – Megan Deaton – proved invaluable.
Deaton, a mother of now 12-year-old twins, serves as co-executive director with Cutler. The organization’s base moved from Hoboken to the county of Somerset, closer to where the two women lived. The items are no longer stored in Cutler’s garage, but in a warehouse in Warren Township.
“I’ll be honest, it wasn’t such a well thought out plan that I would start a diaper bank,” Cutler said. “It kind of bolstered us into becoming a true nonprofit after the first couple of years.”
MHM now serves the entire country in its “battle” against diapers, infant needs, and period poverty.
“This is a missing piece of the puzzle,” Cutler said. “The need for diapers is basically not being able to afford enough diapers to keep your baby clean and healthy. And when they don’t have diapers, a lot of parents will reuse dirty diapers. If you don’t have diapers to put on your baby, you’re not getting much done outside the home.” .
Diapers cost about $80 a month.
“We want these families back to work. They want to go back to work,” Cutler said. “They want to be successful and be able to provide for their children just as much as any other parent. But if they can’t afford diapers…they won’t be able to do much of anything.”
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The same goes for the lack of menstrual products.
“The poverty of the period is the same thing,” she said. “People who can’t tolerate enough menstrual products to stay healthy. So they overuse the products or use the substitutes. Paper or whatever they can find. And, as you can imagine, that can be dangerous.”
It restricts the freedom to do what you need to do.
“If you’re a woman menstruating and you don’t have products, you’re not going anywhere,” Cutler said. “You don’t leave home. You don’t go to school and maybe one of the worst things is when you’re 10 or 11 years old, which means you have to be home from school for a week, every month.”
There are also mental health ramifications for parents who can’t provide their children with the basics, Cutler said.
“Imagine the baby is wearing a wet diaper. It’s miserable. And guess what? You can’t change his diaper because you don’t have another,” Cutler said. “It’s even more miserable and that parent feels like he’s failing a very difficult job already. And in the beginning, you’re supposed to change that child 10 times a day. And that might mean that 10 times a day you’re reminded that you don’t provide for your child.”
She said cloth diapers are not an answer.
“A lot of our families don’t have washers or dryers. You’re not allowed to wash them in the laundromat. And they’re not cheap either. And day care centers won’t use cloth diapers,” Cutler explained. . “You need disposable diapers. So there are all these little links in the chain. These families are having a really, really hard time keeping their heads above water. It’s not really about the diaper. It’s more than that.”
Cutler said diapers, certain nonfood baby items and menstrual products are not covered by government programs, such as WIC or SNAP. She and Deaton have been pushing for more government aid for both baby and children’s products.
“We support the children,” she said. “Our dream and hope apart from not having to do this business anymore because we don’t need it is that there will be a diaper store in every city.”
The organization hopes that Mother’s Day campaigns and donations will help keep up with the need.
In May, MHM hosts collection drives celebrating moms and mommy figures. Those interested in helping can purchase items through the nonprofit’s wish list, leave new or gently used items in the warehouse or make a monetary donation.
For more information, go to momshelpingmoms.org or purchase a wishlist item at a.co/aDpeD0v.
Email: [email protected]
Cheryl McCain is an award-winning education reporter forMyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network. Contact: [email protected] or@tweet. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
