BABY LOVE BEGINNINGS CELEBRATES 4 MILLION DONATED DIAPERS TO WOMEN IN NEED
By: Hillary Leblanc
Tanya Taylor and eponymous brand are no stranger to giving back. She started the brand 14 years ago and has since been sold at many retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus and has two locations in New York and a new Toronto location. During the pandemic, Taylor and life long friend Julia Miller Black were also navigating being young moms. They knew the cost of parenting and wondered how other moms, and those in financially difficult situations were navigating getting resources, supplies, diapers. What started as a Call To Action, followed by community engagement, became the founding story of Baby Love Beginnings.
Photo Credit: Elza Photography
While wondering how to support moms, Miller Black and Taylor reached out to local centers offering baby care and found several in need. They intended to coordinate diapers from local store excess inventory as a one time donation during these hard times. "If we're feeling any sense of isolation this has to be the hardest times upon so many others,” Taylor shares. “I was pregnant at the time and wondering, how are moms getting all the needs that they need for their children? Julia started collecting thousands of diapers in her basement during COVID, and working with local partners to donate the diapers. And receiving excess inventory from local grocery chains.” As Miller Black was organizing how to distribute all of the diapers that had been received, she realized the ideal would be to find a way to have diapers made for their cause with distribution processes. During the process of collecting diapers for a few local centres, many others heard what was happening and called expressing their need for diapers as well. The duo called other baby focused charities and asked how they did the work they do, and used those learnings to create Baby Love Beginnings. It was officially started five to six years ago and has scaled heavily in the last few years.
The first order that Taylor and Miller Black received once they set up distribution and diaper manufacturing was 325,000 diapers. They had five partners that they were spreading the order across. Now, Baby Love Beginnings averages 15,000 diapers per delivery to 17 partner agencies. The organizations that the organizations donate to are quite involved in the wraparound care of moms and baby. On October 21st, the company will be packaging and celebrating their 4 millionth diaper. They are hoping to onboard another partner organization this year, and add 3 or 4 more next year.
Photo Credit: Elza Photography
The underlying issue stems from a few factors including affordability and certain daycare parameters forcing moms to drop off diapers for an entire week of care, as opposed to for the day. For a mom living paycheck to paycheck, supplying a week worth of diapers can be too expensive. Some organizations that have partnered with Baby Love Beginnings were set to shutter because of a lack of diapers and now serve hundreds of families a month because of this partnership.
People can support the organization by pledging $35 a month and joining the Care Club. The $25 goes to diapers and baby wipes for a family monthly. This program is relaunching on Giving Tuesday this year. Corporations have thrown events packaging diapers, and Baby Love Beginnings also throw Baby Showers for moms that are part of their community.
Taylor shares that the duo are elated to have donated 4 million diapers, expressing how it is both overwhelming but more than they expected. Miller Black adds, “While we're marking it and celebrating it, I think it's a fire for us to keep going. We know there's thousands of families that need that support, and so we are absolutely celebrating the Baby Love community that helped us get to where we are, but we have so much energy and momentum to keep going.” Looking ahead they hope to touch more families and increase the number of partner agencies.