We all know how expensive a new baby can be and all of the gear you need!! What do families do when they are struggling to make ends meet and they cannot afford essential items that newborns need. Baby Buggy fills that gap by collecting lightly used items and distributing it to the families that need them the most.

I am very delighted and honored to be joining “Friends of Baby Buggy” a committee formed to help increase public awareness and fundraising efforts for the organization. Nigel has been involved with this charity for years and has donated his time and voice to their cause. Last year he acted as a Baby Buggy ambassador by delivering much-needed goods to the organization, Little Sisters of the Assumption, here in Harlem, NYC. He handed out diapers and baby supplies and met local families that this organization supports. He was deeply touched by their stories of what a positive impact Baby Buggy has been in their lives.

Nigel and I recently attended their 10th Anniversary Gala and enjoyed an amazing night celebrating 10 years of giving!

Baby Buggy works with a network of over 50 community based organizations (CBOs) to distribute new and gently used essentials: from cribs and strollers to clothing and bottles, all of which are vetted for safety.

How They Give
Baby Buggy distributes product through 50+ carefully selected CBOs, each of which apply annually to become a recipient. Each month, the organizations submit the items they need for the families they serve. Based on available inventory, Baby Buggy does our best to fill these requests, providing approximately 40,500 items each month.

Each month, Baby Buggy serves approximately 1,600 families and 2,000 children in the following 6 cities; Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, and Washington, DC.
These families are clients of Baby Buggy-supported domestic violence shelters; anti-poverty programs including Single Stop and Harlem Children’s Zone; fatherhood programs like the Bronx Fatherhood Program; educational programs such as Head Start; the International Rescue Committee’s Resettlement Program; and the evidence based Nurse-Family Partnership program.

Incentive Based Donations
Baby Buggy’s product distributions are combined with comprehensive social service assistance, such as job training, financial literacy classes, and parenting support & education. They are often used as an incentive tool by CBOs to encourage parents to take steps that will help them become better providers for their children. For example: A mom receives stroller after demonstrating that he has opened an education savings account for her child. A father receives a crib after participating in a 16-week fatherhood program.
By making donations through proven programs like Head Start and Nurse-Family Partnership, Baby Buggy is ensured that families not only receive immediately-needed items like strollers and bottles, but that recipient parents are enrolled in programs that will help build their self-sufficiency over the long-term.

Visit the Baby Buggy Website to learn about ways help the many families that they support.

http://babybuggy.org/

What They Give
Since their inception in 2001, Baby Buggy has donated over 5 million items including the following:
2.4 Million Diapers
6300 Cribs
5200 Strollers
3300 Front Carriers
2200 Highchairs
2300 Bath Tubs
2100 Baby Monitors
1900 Playpens

“Think about it, why would you make something that you’re going to use for a few minutes out of a material that’s basically going to last forever, and you’re just going to throw it away. What’s up with that?”

- Jeb Berrier

Single use disposables like water bottles, coffee cups, plastic utensils and take out containers make our lives more convenient. About 2,480,000 tons of plastic bottles and jars were disposed of in 2008 around the world.

Unfortunately, plastic is not disposable and the use of these items leads to environmental degradation. After being disposed, plastic containers and water bottles get placed in over-flowing landfills, clogged rivers, and our ocean. And when the plastics break down, they do not biodegrade. Instead they break down into fragments which contaminate our natural resources.

Click here to check out Bag it the movie

Bag It Intro from Suzan Beraza on Vimeo.

In the United States alone, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil is used annually to make the plastic bags that Americans consume. The United States International Trade Commission reported that 102 billion plastic bags were used in the U.S. in 2009. These bags often wind up in waterways or on the landscape, becoming eyesores and degrading water and soil as they break down into toxic bits. Their manufacture, transportation and disposal use large quantities of non-renewable resources and release equally large amounts of global-warming gases. Ecologically, hundreds of thousands of marine animals die every year when they eat plastic bags mistaken for food.

Governments around the world have taken action to ban or restrict the use of plastic bags. In 2008, China banned the use of ultra-thin plastic bags, and it is estimated to have eliminated 40 billion bags in the first year. Ireland placed a fee on plastic bags and reportedly reduced consumption by 90%.

Towns all over the United States are rising to the challenge and standing up to the oil, gas and plastic industries. San Francisco has banned plastic bags. Seattle has fought a hard fight to place a fee on single-use disposable plastic AND paper bags, only to be shut down by the American Chemistry Council, a group that profits greatly from the production of plastic bags. The ACC spends millions to combat anti-plastic bag campaigns.

In spite of this challenge, U.S. cities including Austin, Boston, New Haven, Portland, Phoenix and Annapolis, are considering bag bans or fees.

Click here to become a Bag it town.