On a warm October evening, Help a Mother Out supporters, board members, partners, and staff gathered on a San Francisco rooftop to celebrate what this community accomplished this year.
Photo courtesy Jasmine Gonzalez
“This work is not about one person,” said Executive Director Lisa Truong. “It’s really about the collective and the community, and it takes all of us here as a team.”
This past year, you helped HAMO distribute 9.5 million diapers and 7.6 million baby wipes to Bay Area families, which is close to $3.8 million in essential supplies. Given that a newborn goes through 10 to 12 diapers a day, and older babies go through six to eight, that’s a lot of babies kept clean and dry.
Guests got to see example cases of our ELO Baby diapers, HAMO’s own premium brand, which travel from the manufacturer to our Oakland warehouse and on to families through partner agencies across the Bay Area.
As guests arrived, we asked them, “What’s a small thing someone did for you that mattered more than they knew?” The answers hung along strings across the deck, each one a reminder of how much a small act of support can have a lasting impact. For example, one guest wrote about a counselor whose encouragement about college “dramatically changed the trajectory of my life.”
A diaper is another small thing with a big reach, and you are a big part of why that reach happens.
Lyn-Tise Jones, HAMO’s first Deputy Director, shared how she came to this work. Before joining HAMO, she directed the OMI Family Resource Center, which is located in a San Francisco neighborhood where deep need sits blocks away from far more comfortable households. Families there picked up HAMO diapers close to home from people who spoke their language.
“I saw firsthand the impact Help a Mother Out had on these families,” Lyn-Tise said. It’s why she chose to join HAMO’s team.
Board member Dan Kelly told the story of how he and Lisa worked together to build the San Francisco Diaper Bank more than ten years ago. The idea was to give families a full monthly supply of diapers with no paperwork or long waits.
“We trust them as parents,” Dan said. “The money they save – and diapers are expensive – they could use for rent or food.”
He also explained why your support matters. Public funding helps HAMO buy diapers at scale, but community support helps us reach more families each year.
Photo courtesy Kristen Sze, ABC7 News
Thank you to everyone who joined us, wrote a card, and stayed to talk. And thank you to ABC7’s Kristen Sze for sharing the evening with her followers.
This work has always belonged to our community. It was good to mark that by spending an evening together.