The Athens Area Diaper Bank has exceeded its most recent collection goal targeting diaper need in the area.
The nonprofit hosted a Diapers Up! Community-Wide Diaper Drive in September. Organizers had hoped to provide 100,000 diapers to families in need, but they collected more than 159,000. Executive Director Erin Campbell says diaper need impacts the entire family.
“First and foremost, the physical health of the child, that not wearing clean diapers all the time, that child has a higher risk of diaper rash, infections like UTIs,” according to Campbell. “Economically, families frequently struggle to afford both food and diapers or other basic needs.
Campbell also says a lack of diapers can affect a caregiver’s ability to work because diapers are required at daycare and children can’t be left at facilities without an adequate number of diapers.
In 2025, the diaper bank distributed 840,000 diapers to more than 19,000 children in the six-county distribution area.
