Over the Moon Diaper Bank seeks to decrease period poverty and diaper need

Destini Ambus | Savannah Morning News

Katie Griffith, the founder and executive director of Over the Moon Diaper Bank said that what they do at the non-profit is something that’s very tangible and can make effective change very quickly.

The organization provides diapers, period and incontinence products free of charge to those in need. Think about how a food bank functions − that’s exactly how this diaper, period, hygiene bank functions.

The organization, which started in 2019, and is the only one in the Coastal Georgia area has now grown to the point where a warehouse is necessary. They obtained space at Port City Logistics to store the thousands of diapers, pads, tampons, wipes and more that they receive through donations. The bank serves those in need, year-round from Beaufort to Brunswick.

Earlier this year, a bill made its way through the Georgia state Legislature to exempt certain absorbent diapers, undergarments and pads from sales and use taxes. Diapers and period products are taxed at a minimum of 4%, the statewide tax rate, but can reach 9% in certain parts of the state. In Savannah, the sales tax is 7%, a combination of the state, city and sales tax rate.

The bill did not advance out of the committee this year, but is still alive for January 2024 when the Legislature reconvenes. In the meantime, 47% of families with small children still experience diaper need – that’s one in two families. Two in five people struggle to purchase period supplies due to lack of income, according to Over the Moon website otmdiaperbank.org.

The vision for Over the Moon is simple: To improve the health, ease of life, and dignity of coastal neighbors because we believe everyone deserves to be clean, healthy, happy, safe and dry.

“These are problems that are solvable by laypeople,” Griffith said. “You know, you don’t have to be a healthcare professional to figure this out, but you know get some volunteers, fundraise some, connect with other people, and it just has this ripple effect. Anybody can do something.”

Griffith said that Over the Moon is something that had been building since 2017, when she and her family began donating to the Texas diaper bank after Hurricane Harvey hit Houston.

As she started learning more about diaper need, she realized it was something that people needed on a daily basis, not just during natural disasters. She began looking for something similar in the area, and the closest one was hours away – the only other banks in Georgia are the Diaper Bank of North Georgia in Gainesville and the Athens Area Diaper Bank in Athens.

After reaching out to the National Diaper Bank Network and different organizations in the Savannah area she began to slowly build Over the Moon, with the help of a lot of volunteers, who still volunteer their time to hep today.

“It’s very grassroots, but we wanted to work with organizations that already had systems in place that could easily and quickly get items out to people who need them, who already had those relationships built in,” Griffith said.

That’s the model – they have donation bins set up in various locations, volunteers pick up the products in the bins and bundle them based on size (of diapers), and then they stock them with partner organizations or have distribution events with local libraries, churches and community partners.

One of those partners is Live Oak Public Libraries. Savanna Waddle, the regional social services coordinator with the library system said that banks like Over the Moon are vital in expanding access to families.

“Diapers and period products are basic necessities, yet the price of these items is prohibitive for some folks,” Waddle said. “Over the Moon has brought the service to them.”

According to the National Diaper Bank Network, children require at least 50 diaper changes per week, or 200 diaper changes a month. Over the Moon gives away 50 diapers to each family at distribution.

“Most people they’re missing 50 diapers at the end of every month, so that’s what we provide,” Griffith said. “We try to time most of our giveaways at the second half of the month, when people need the help the most so they can get through to their next pay period.”