Beantown Baby Diaper Bank Expands in Lexington Thanks to Partnership with Finnegan Development
Rachel Segaloff, founder and executive director of Beantown Baby Diaper Bank in Lexington since 2018, has made it her mission to reduce the diaper need in the Greater Boston communities while raising awareness on how important it is for every baby to have a clean diaper.
Beantown Baby Diaper Bank provides diapers to agencies and organizations in the surrounding areas. They are the only organization in Middlesex County whose sole mission is distributing diapers.
Segaloff ran her first diaper drive in 2012. She learned about diaper needs when her daughter, now 12 years old, was a baby. She and her family resided in Waltham then, so she ran her first diaper drive at her daughter’s preschool in Waltham. She said back then, they primarily benefited Diaper Depot in Waltham, but she wanted to expand, and that is just what she did.
Segaloff, who is dedicated to the Beantown Baby Diaper Bank full-time now, is grateful to have grown the organization immensely in the past few years. In 2021, she partnered with Ben Finnegan of Finnegan Development. Finnegan, a Lexington real estate developer, provides warehouse space for Beantown Baby Diaper Bank, which has allowed Segaloff to start ordering pallets to distribute even more diapers than before.
Segaloff previously stored all the diapers at home. She praises Jamie Osborn, President of Finnegan Development, for accepting these pallets when they arrive. She noted, “it’sa big deal because I can distribute more diapers because I have access to more.” She said that it is cheaper to buy in bulk. She works with two wholesalers now and tests the diapers out first on her friends’ babies before distributing them.
In January 2025, they were able to distribute 22,000 diapers. Last year, the organization provided around 160,000 diapers, and they are on track to do around 250,000 this year. “Since my very first diaper drive in 2012, we have distributed over 725,000 diapers. So, we are not far from the one million diapers mark!” She hopes to get there by next year. Storage is a big part of running a diaper bank. “There are probably 250 diaper banks across the country, but every single one of them will tell you that storage is the one thing that you have to figure out.” She also has a trailer that Finnegan Development gave her back in 2022 for additional storage.
Ben Finnegan of Finnegan Development stated, “It’s truly a light lift on our end, and we’re happy that she’s here in Lexington working hard for this great cause.” Finnegan and Segaloff met in October of 2021. At that point, she had thousands of diapers in her house, and she and her husband determined they needed a proper space to store them.
Since Finnegan Development was supportive of a lot of local charitable organizations in Lexington, Segaloff emailed him. He responded in eight minutes and indicated that he was happy to help!
Beantown Baby Diaper Bank now has 10 partners, up from 7 in the fall, all thanks to the storage space at Finnegan Development’s new location on Bedford Street.
These partners include Arlington EATS, FamilyACCESS, Diaper Depot in Waltham, Lexington Food Pantry, People Helping People-Burlington Food Pantry, WeeCare Burlington, Middlesex Human Service Agency (MHSA), REACH- Beyond Domestic Violence, the Watertown Food Pantry and the Woburn Council of Social Concern.
“A baby can go through 6 to 10 diapers a day, which can cost $80 to $100 a month or more, depending on the brand,” Segaloff said. “If people don’t have an adequate supply of clean diapers, then the baby is more susceptible to infection or health risks, which is just more time-consuming and more of a financial investment. And, if you don’t have an adequate supply of disposable diapers to give to a childcare center, you cannot send your child there. So, how are you supposed to go to school or work?” she asked. “Nobody wants to be in this poverty cycle that sort of exists. There have been babies who have been abused simply because they’re crying incessantly because they don’t have a clean diaper on, but the parent can’t change the diaper.” She compared it to having access to food. “Who doesn’t want a baby to have access to a clean diaper? That’s a no-brainer. Who doesn’t want children to have access to food?”
The Lexington community can help Beantown Baby Diaper Bank in several ways. Drop off a donation of diapers in the donation bin at the Stop and Shop on Bedford Street. The most popular diaper size is 4-7 months. If you can, donate cash via the Beantown Baby website. Cash donations helps them to purchase palettes. Palettes are between $1,800-2,000 each, so financial contributions really help out a great deal.
“This is a great example of a partnership between a nonprofit and a local business,” Segaloff says.
Ben Finnegan at Finnegan Development called it a “community promise,” which is their way of giving back to the community. Finnegan Development chooses organizations that align with their mission, and Beantown Baby Diaper Bank is something that he is grateful to be a part of. Segaloff said Finnegan “cares about the community, he cares about people, he cares about the homes that he builds, and this is just one way of expressing that.”
For her part, keeping kids in dry diapers is her way of doing something to help young parents who are often struggling just to get by every day.
Hold a Diaper Drive!
Beantown Baby has a draft flyer for you to personalize for your organization or you can be provided with an Amazon Wishlist for people to participate in a virtual diaper drive. They typically run for 1-2 weeks or are associated with a specific event (i.e. holiday party).
Once the drive is complete, you may contact Rachel at beantownbabydiaperbank@gmail.com who will coordinate pick-up/drop-off.
Contribute online.
beantownbabydiaperbank.org
Contribute Online
