Needy parents and other caregivers of Norwich area children have received some welcome assistance from three local Rotary organizations.

The Special Delivery Nappy Project obtained and delivered last month more than 8,100 diapers, along with 128 packages of wipes and 18 tubes of diaper ointment to two local non-profit groups that help financially struggling families.

Members of the Norwich Sunrise Rotary, Noontime Rotary, and the Norwich Rotary Community Corps used a $3,000 COVID-19 Community Response Grant from the Rotary Foundation to obtain the items, giving them to Madonna Place in downtown Norwich, and the Saint Vincent de Paul Place on Cliff Street.

“There’s a definite need in the community for diapers and related items,” said the president of the Norwich Rotary Community Corps Brenda McDonald. “Diapers are very expensive; parents and grandparents have experienced the high cost. People have been affected by the COVID shutdown, but even in the best of times, diapers can be hard to afford for many.”

She noted diapers are not covered by food stamps, and a child can go through quite a few of them each day. “It’s an ongoing expense,” she added.

McDonald said the Nappy Project is the latest effort by Norwich Rotarians to help the community.

“We had first thought about doing a community garden with the grant money,” she said, “but we couldn’t see how we could maintain that through the summer and fall. The diaper project seemed to fulfill a great need in the community on so many different levels.”

Warehouse space to store the cases of diapers, wipes, and ointment was donated by Surplus Unlimited on West Main Street. Owner Michael Matera is a member of the Norwich Noontime Rotary.

Members of all three Rotary organizations met in the rear of the building on a hot June 28 afternoon to load a truck and several cars with the donated items, and deliver them to their destinations.

The director of Saint Vincent de Paul Place, Jill Corbin, was grateful for what her organization received.

“We give out hygiene bags each month to those who request it, consisting of various toiletry items, such as shampoo, toothpaste and soap,” she said. “Diapers are included for those that need them. It’s certainly a much requested item by parents.”

Corbin admits a lot of people may consider Saint Vincent de Paul as just a soup kitchen, so they may only think of food items when making donations. “But we do offer these hygiene bags, along with our other services. It’s wonderful that there are groups like the Rotarians that help us with those needs.”

Saint Vincent de Paul handed out 450 hygiene bags last month, some of them including diapers.

McDonald said both organizations help financially insecure families deal with the high costs of raising children, and that includes providing diapers. She said the non-profits have reported seeing a large uptick in demand for diapers since the onset of the pandemic. A 2020 United Way report showed 33 percent of the Southeastern Connecticut community meets either federal poverty standards, or exceeds those standards, making less than the cost of living in the area. That number increases to 44 percent in Norwich.

The data also noted that most childcare facilities require parents to provide diapers for their child, but that nationally, 57 percent of parents who rely on such daycare said they missed an average of four days of work or school in the past month because they couldn’t afford to pay for diapers.

The Diaper Bank of Connecticut reports one in three families in the state struggles to afford an adequate supply of diapers.

More help for local families struggling with diaper costs is coming from the Norwich Rotarians. A $2,000 matching grant will be used by the group to buy more diapers and related supplies, which will be donated to the Thames Valley Council for Community Action and the Thames River Family Program, which provides transitional housing for homeless families.

McDonald said the Norwich Rotary Community Corps, and the local Rotary clubs, have a long history of helping various non-profit organizations and events. One of the more recent examples was helping to distribute free face masks during the pandemic to the public, organized by the local Sikh organization.

McDonald said the Nappy Project has been rewarding, and she knows full well that the need for diapers is there. “Hey, I raised six kids. Diapers were the most expensive things to purchase,” she said.

Kevin Gorden lives in Norwich.