Baby supplies for 60 families in the Bronx

Baby Buggy has been serving St. Anthony’s Head Start program since April 2006; since then, we have distributed nearly 20,000 baby items and gear to families at St. Anthony’s - valued at almost $150,000.

Recently, the Director at St. Anthony’s asked an expectant mother of three enrolled in the program to briefly describe her thoughts about Baby Buggy resources. She shared that although her husband works, they struggle to obtain the essentials they need. She was very worried about whether they would be able to acquire all of the necessities to take care of their new baby. After receiving essential gear, clothing, books, bath products, as well as clothing and shoes for her other children, she said that Baby Buggy was the answer to her prayers. “God is good and his blessings sometimes come through good and kind hearted people you don’t even know,” she said, “Thank you, thank you, Baby Buggy.”

Through funding for the Family Resource Center, we plan to provide 60 families at St. Anthony’s with 4-6 Baby Buggy donations a year. These donations will consist of essential baby items and gear, clothing, books, and many other baby products to help provide families with all of the baby items that are needed to help with the safety and well-being of their young children.

In preparing for our May 1st start date, we have made the following strides towards offering families regular Baby Buggy resources, financial education workshops, and benefits analysis in order to empower families so they can help themselves to improve their financial and overall stress:

• Sixty families have been identified to participate – these families will begin receiving Baby Buggy donations on May 1st;

• Family Workers from St. Anthony’s were sent to a training session on how to use the self-sufficiency calculator, which will give them the ability to determine which benefits the families are eligible to receive;

• The financial literacy curriculum for financial education workshops has been selected;

• We have secured a facilitator to train volunteers to facilitate culturally sensitive financial education workshops and individual financial sessions with families;

• Recruitment of volunteers to facilitate the financial education workshops with families is currently underway;

• There have been two on-site volunteer events in which families participated by patching and repairing clothing. This allowed families to bond and strengthen ties; the clothing was then distributed to families within the community.