Caroline Blackard donates to Jo’s diaper drive.|Photo By LYNDA STRINGER

May 13, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

The first thing a parent does when their baby is crying is check their diaper. But, what if it needs changing and there are no diapers left in the bag? That’s a dilemma many families in need face and when they turn to Titus County Cares for help, right now, they are being turned away.

“Titus County Cares has been out of diapers for two months,” said Caroline Blackard, the acting manager at Jo’s Coffee Shop, which launched a diaper drive Friday for the organization to help meet the need. Many of the staff have small children and understand what a huge issue it can be for parents. Blackard said Belle Baker, the mom of a 2-year-old boy, is the leading force behind the drive.

“Where she lived before there was a place where foster families could pick up things like that, so she has been involved with diaper drives before,” Blackard said.

The staff reached out to Titus County Cares to find out what their situation was with their stores of diapers. The organization said Kimberly Clark had donated seven pallets of diapers a little over a year ago, which lasted six months.

“Since then they have taken cash donations to buy diapers, but they haven’t had any children’s diapers to hand out at all for a few months now,” Blackard said.

Jo’s has set a goal of collecting 5,000 diapers during the campaign, which will run through June 18. That should provide a 10-week supply of diapers for the organization. Titus County Cares will distribute the diapers to parents who qualify for financial assistance and have been verified to have children three years of age or younger living in the home.

“This is something our employees decided to do to give back to the community,” Blackard said. “It’s something that is near and dear to their hearts.”

When donors brings in a box of 100 diapers, they will receive a free 12 ounce drink from the coffee bar. For a bag of diapers, customers will receive $2 off their purchase.

Blackard said the diaper drive is the latest community service project the coffee shop has been involved in. Jo’s, which part of Ark Ministries, just wrapped up a weeklong sale of blueberry muffins provided by Pearl’s Kitchen at the end of April. For each muffin sold, Jo’s donated $2 to CASA of Titus, Camp and Morris Counties. Jo’s had an anonymous matching donor as well.

“We had a goal to sell 250 muffins and we met that on the last day. With the matching donation, we were able to give CASA $1,000,” Blackard said.

The coffee shop is also planning a pet portrait day to raise money for the Mount Pleasant Animal Shelter.