05/29/2026
Rachael: “I was working in an after-school program in Hilltop, and I had persistent burnout. It was hard work, and I was looking for a change. Then one day when I was driving home, I heard this NPR snippet about diaper need, and I had never even thought about it. We didn't have children at that time. We weren't even married. But I researched it, and there were no diaper banks in Columbus.”
Mikey: “We ended up going to Washington D.C. to visit a diaper bank and learned how they did it, and the lady who ran it was like, ‘Whatever you do, don't start a diaper bank.’
At first, we thought, ‘It's easy. It's just one product. It's diapers.’ But the more you dig in and learn about the issue, the more complicated it gets.
Government programs like the WIC Nutrition Program do not cover hygiene products, and the lack of funding around hygiene products as a whole means that the need will never go away, unless some miracle happens and hygiene products start to be funded federally. Diapers are as close to a necessity as you can get.”
Rachael: “When we had our children, the need became so much more real. You go through so many diapers, and it gets so irritating. There’s so much stress in worrying about always having enough on hand. And it just snowballs from there. You see them go to waste almost as soon as you change them. And sure, you have cloth diapers, but how many people have laundry on site? Detergent is expensive. Water bills just keep going up.
We are organizers. We work with other nonprofits and partner agencies to deliver the diapers, so we rarely interact with the people we serve. But I recently delivered diapers to one of our partners who works with immigrant and refugee families, and I was reminded that we serve people from all walks of life. It’s just so rewarding.”
Mikey: “Prices are higher. Incomes are down. We see people struggling right now, and there's just less support. But we just received a grant from Franklin County, and we are so grateful. It was like oxygen. We’ll be able to do this work for at least a few more years, and then after that, we hope to secure more funding and do this for as long as we can.”
- Rachael and Mikey Sorboro are the founders of Columbus Diaper Bank, providing diapers to Central Ohio families and advocating for dignity, health, and opportunity for every child.
