Boston nonprofit distributes 80,000 diapers to help families struggling with rising costs

Originally appeared in the Boston Globe

By Yogev Toby

October 8, 2025

Raising a baby has always been expensive, but now it’s getting worse.

Just look at diapers. Their costs have climbed nearly 50 percent since 2020, according to the National Diaper Bank Network, a nonprofit that targets poverty.

A family spends an average of $1,000 a year per child on diapers, leaving nearly half of US families with children under 3 struggling to afford diapers, according to the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank.

Enter Neighborhood Villages. On Tuesday, the nonprofit, which advocates for child care and early childhood education, distributed nearly 80,000 diapers to help families throughout Greater Boston.

“As the cost of living crisis continues,” said Sarah Siegel Muncey, co-president of Neighborhood Villages, “it’s hitting families with 0- to 5-year-olds much harder.”

Inflation and tariffs are squeezing families with young children, according to a recent analysis by the parenting media company Babycenter. The average cost in a baby’s first year alone has climbed 20 percent since January to nearly $21,000.

And it’s unlikely to get cheaper in subsequent years. For example, the average cost of strollers, primarily manufactured in China, jumped 18 percent in July, to $617 from $523, according to the Babycenter analysis. Infant car seat prices rose 12 percent to $309 from $275.

Even before tariffs started kicking in, Massachusetts families faced the most expensive child care costs in the country, according to the Kids Count data center, an initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, one of the nation’s largest private foundations. Day care for a toddler in Massachusetts averaged nearly $20,000 in 2023, the most recent figures available, compared with a national average of about $10,000 a year.

At a Hyde Park warehouse Tuesday morning, vans and cars lined up to collect not only diapers, but also baby wipes, formula, coats, laundry detergent, and school supplies. Workers and volunteers loaded the trunks and cargo areas of the vehicles of other nonprofits that aid families with children.

One of them was Medford Family Network, which regularly holds diaper giveaway events that help more than 100 families.

“It helps free up the money that we would be spending on diapers to purchase other things for our families,” said Irina Shumway, the nonprofit’s incoming director.

Neighborhood Villages partnered with the foundation of investment firm MFS Investment Management and Baby2Baby, a nonprofit that focuses on emergency resources for children and families. The diaper giveaway served nearly 10 organizations in the Greater Boston area, including child care programs, Coordinated Family and Community Engagement offices, early intervention programs, and Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition programs.

Neighborhood Villages hosts four diaper distribution events a year, which take place in Boston, Brockton, Worcester, and Western Massachusetts communities.

Muncey said the diaper drive is “not a silver bullet,” but one of many ways the organization is trying to address rising costs of childcare.

Beyond diaper distribution, Neighborhood Villages regularly collaborates with childhood education programs that serve children up to age 5, and promotes child care reform in the state. It creates free curricula, offers career advancement coaching for teachers, and advocates for additional state funding to address challenges in early education.

For Muncey and Neighborhood Villages, the work doesn’t end at reducing parenting costs. Their goal is to foster a comprehensive support system for early education, including mental health resources tailored for toddlers and their parents.

“When it comes to affordability,” Muncey said, “the fix is a system.”