We hear a lot about pervasive social issues in our community—homelessness, addiction, racial inequities, affordable housing, liveable wages. All of those play roles in one particular need we rarely hear about—diapers.

My guests today are Alicia Heacock and Meagan Lyon Leimena, co-executive directors of Babies Need Bottoms, an Asheville nonprofit diaper bank that distributes about 40,000 diapers every month to partner organizations across 16 Western North Carolinas counties.

Alicia and Meagan say diaper need, as it’s called, multiplied fivefold during the pandemic. They talk about the daisy chain of circumstances, from transportation challenges to state sales taxes, that make it more difficult to afford diapers. They also detail the social and economic impacts, such as being closed off from childcare, when parents can’t afford diapers. 

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