Oakland woman’s diaper bank marks 17 years helping Bay Area families

By Sharon Chin

An Oakland woman’s nonprofit has been giving away free diapers to Bay Area families in need for the last 17 years.

As mother of two young sons, changing diapers was a daily part of life for Lisa Truong back in 2009. But she had no idea how diapers would change her life or years to come.

Truong was watching an Oprah Winfrey Show episode about helping mothers during the recession when she and a friend got inspired to do something.

“We were shocked that no public assistance covered diapers, and then we got really mad,” Truong said.

So she and fellow mom Rachel Fudge launched a Mother’s Day donation drive and collected 15,000 diapers for distribution. Soon after, they co-founded Help A Mother Out Bay Area Diaper Bank.

“Every mom loves her baby,” Truong said. “I felt like this was an opportunity that was easy and simple to give back.”

From its Oakland warehouse, Help A Mother Out has given away 10 million free diapers a year through a network of social service partners.

Kyshadah McGowan-Smith first received diapers for her daughter Kyomi Smith after she was born prematurely two years ago.

“There’s no words to explain what them being able to help me with diapers is because it’s helped me be able to help her and it was one thing I didn’t have to worry about,” McGowan-Smith said.

Lyn-Tise Jones, Help A Mother Out deputy director, says the nonprofit empowers moms like McGowan-Smith.

“It means everything to them” Jones said. “They get to make the decision between buying diapers and buying groceries. It is one burden lifted from them.”

Truong also helped create the nation’s first citywide publicly-funded diaper bank in San Francisco in 2015. It offers families on CalWorks, CalFresh, and Medi-Cal a month’s supply of diapers each month for children under age two. 

More than 22,000 children have gotten free diapers through these efforts. Board secretary Claudia Ceseña credits Truong’s leadership for helping countless families.

“It’s people like Lisa that really see a problem, come up with a solution and don’t overcomplicate things,” Ceseña said. “Just simple: get diapers to babies, support families in that way.”

In most cases, the diapers come from the nonprofit’s private label, ELO Baby. ELO stands for Every Little One.

Truong says it’s one way of making moms feel like they’re getting a gift, not a handout, from the 17-year-old diaper bank.

“It has been a train ride with no brakes,” Truong said. “We’ve distributed 80 million diapers since our founding.”

Truong says she is grateful for the support of her staff, volunteers and community partners for making it all work.