Just Launched: Tampa Bay Diaper Bank

It’s not just about diapers. It’s about dignity.

Diaper need impacts more than 200,000 families in Hillsborough County alone. That means they can’t afford to give their babies a clean supply of diapers for a week of daycare.

It’s a staggering statistic. And it inspired the idea within the Junior League of Tampa to start a diaper bank in 2018 as a project to help families meet that fundamental need.

As the Junior League of Tampa prepares to mark its centennial year in 2026, they are celebrating another important milestone: launching that modest project into a full, standalone nonprofit: the Tampa Bay Diaper Bank.

First–tell us more about how the Diaper Bank got its start. Where did the idea come from?

Lyndsey Siara: The idea for The Junior League of Tampa Diaper Bank began after a member saw a news clip about the need for diapers after Hurricane Harvey devasted Texas and Louisiana in 2017.

This JLT member learned about diaper banks and how they provided diapers to families in need. JLT learned more about this need and researched whether there were any diaper banks in our area. After learning from community partners that diaper need ran deep in Hillsborough County and the nearest diaper bank was in St. Petersburg, JLT created its Diaper Bank project in 2018.

Looking back to when this was just an idea, how are you feeling now to see how the Diaper Bank has grown and how it has helped change the lives of so many families in our area?

Lyndsey Siara: JLT's Diaper Bank began in 2018 with four community partners, a diaper drive that raised 1,000 diapers, and a small self-storage unit.

Seven years later, the Diaper Bank serves 16 community partners, has moved into an industrial warehouse space, and has distributed over 3.75 million diapers.

To ensure long-term sustainability, to invest in growth and to follow historical precedent, in 2024, JLT decided to gift its Diaper Bank project to the community by creating a standalone nonprofit organization. After identifying the inaugural board for the new diaper bank, JLT officially launched the Diaper Bank, and the Tampa Bay Diaper Bank was created in January 2025.

TBDB is poised to carry on JLT's legacy by investing in the growth of the diaper bank to best serve our community.

What is the diaper need in our community, and how has it changed over the last few years?

Lyndsey Siara: The Junior League of Tampa has been a member of the National Diaper Bank Network since the creation of its Diaper Bank project. NDBN supports the work of its member banks through research, advocacy and product donations.

NDBN's 2023 Diaper Check nationally representative study revealed that nationwide, 1 in 2 families struggles with diaper need. Diaper need is the lack of a sufficient supply of diapers to keep a child clean, dry and healthy.

In Florida, 43% of our state's small children live in families that earn less than 200% of the federal poverty level (just over $62,000 per year for a family of four; you can learn more about the FPL HERE.

JLT's Diaper Bank is one of Florida's 15 NDBN member banks that collectively distribute over 10 million diapers annually and serve over 17,000 children monthly. More information on Florida diaper need statistics can be found on NDBN's website at https://nationaldiaperbanknetwork.org/.

How does the Diaper Bank work, and how can people get involved?

Lyndsey Siara: The Diaper Bank works to procure diapers and provide monthly distributions to its community nonprofit partners, who in turn provide the diapers to their client families in need.

Through our partnership network, JLT's Diaper Bank, and now the Tampa Bay Diaper Bank, supports other local nonprofits by allowing them to focus on their unique missions, including child abuse prevention, providing services to survivors of domestic violence or supporting foster families, while providing a critical basic need to their client families.

Community members can engage with the new Tampa Bay Diaper Bank by visiting their website, www.tampabaydiaperbank.org, signing up for their email distribution list and following them on Instagram @tampabaydiaperbank.

Engaged community members can help educate the larger community by hosting diaper drives, collecting diapers that will support a family in need. For folks that want to quickly and easily support, they can visit our Amazon Wish List (Amazon.com). Every diaper helps!

In the coming months, Tampa Bay Diaper Bay will develop additional meaningful engagement opportunities where members of the community can help pack individual diapers into diaper bundles, providing a week's worth of diapers for a baby in our community.

During the continued transition of creating this brand-new nonprofit, JLT will continue to provide support to the Tampa Bay Diaper Bank. Community members can learn more by contacting either JLT or TBDB.

The Diaper Bank started as a JLT project as an idea of a member. Let's talk about how the JLT fosters this kind of community involvement and leadership amongst its members.

Lyndsey Siara: As a nearly 100-year Tampa institution, The Junior League of Tampa has successfully employed a develop-and-launch model with its community projects.

This means our organization identifies a community need, develops a project to address that need, nurtures and grows the project, and then aims to launch that project out into the community as a stand-alone nonprofit capable of more extensively serving the community.

JLT's Diaper Bank project launching into a separate nonprofit – Tampa Bay Diaper Bank – is a beautiful example of the power of JLT's volunteer women growing a project to deeply serve a community need.

READ MORE:

How to Volunteer with the Kids in Tampa Bay: 10+ ways to give back

Originally published in the April 2025 issue of Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine.