Baby Booties Diaper Bank, a McKinney-based nonprofit serving all of Collin County, has been working to meet new waves of demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The nonprofit is hosting weekly drive-thru events to pass out diapers, wipes, feminine hygiene products, formula and food to families in need.

In the past five weeks, the nonprofit has passed out more than 31,000 diapers to Collin County families in need, officials said.

“We have seen more families in a single Saturday emergency pop-up event then we see in an entire month,” Helen Hutton, Baby Booties founder and executive director said in an email.

There is no federal assistance program, such as WIC or SNAP, that provides diapers for families, Hutton said. Before the virus, one in three families struggled to provide enough diapers for their children, she said. This need has only increased as hoarding, loss of jobs and shelter in place orders have forced even more families to turn to nonprofit diaper banks and deplete that stream of supplies, she said.


“The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately impacting vulnerable children and families who lack access to clean diapers and other basic necessities,” Hutton said in her email.

Baby Booties collects diapers and feminine hygiene products through in-kind and financial donations, as well as local diaper and hygiene drives to distribute to people in need in the community. Hutton said the need for these items has only increased as more people have lost their sources of income.

“Families already barely scraping by are now not working, kids are home from school requiring more resources to go toward food and other increasing needs, and families are just trying to hold on,” Hutton said in her email.

The nonprofit will continue to hold its drive-thru events as long as it has diapers and its volunteers stay healthy, but Baby Booties is asking for help from the community to continue to meet its mission.


These calls for help are in step with the #GivingTuesdayNow campaign, an emergency fundraising day coordinated by North Texas Giving Day. The campaign will be held May 5.

#GivingTuesdayNow is calling for communities to donate to local nonprofit organizations grappling with financial woes and resource scarcity amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NTGD website contains over 3,000 organizations in need of fundraising.

People who are able to can contribute to Baby Booties Diaper Bank by visiting www.babybootiesdiaperbank.org. They can also donate diapers through the organization’s Amazon Wish List by following this link.


Additional reporting by Gavin Pugh