Sweet Cheeks Is Megan’s Calling

Pregnant with her second child, feeling blessed with the path her life had taken her to that point, Megan Fischer was sitting at her work cubicle when she took a quick break to check her Facebook feed. It was that split moment that changed her passion and career forever.

A random article had caught her attention. It spoke of one of the least talked about obstacles in the path out of poverty for families…the desperate need for diapers. Such a staple for young parents, Megan – like so many of us – just assumed diapers were covered by government assistance…but they aren’t. And, without diapers, kids can’t go to day care which means mom and dad can’t go to work. Kids are not ready for preschool. They are not developing to their fullest potential.

“I was cloth diapering my son and pregnant with my daughter at the time,” Megan remembered. “I couldn’t imagine what those parents must be experiencing, and I know the poverty rate in Cincinnati is astronomical.  What do you do? How do you feel worth as a parent if you can’t provide that basic need for your child? I just sat there and cried.”

She researched diaper banks in our region, only to find none. And then, the soon-to-be mother of two tried to push the topic out of her mind. She was busy enough with her family, a full-time job, part-time jobs, and volunteer work. She was successful at that for about a year.

“Finally, I realized there was not already a diaper bank in Greater Cincinnati because it was supposed to be me,” she said.

Megan had no idea how to go about starting a nonprofit so she went to the Secretary of State website and read about it. She enlisted her friend, Mike, to help with her logo, social media and tagline (among other things). Several other friends stepped up too. And soon the group was launched.

Sweet Cheeks officially incorporated in October, 2015. By April, 2016, their first diapers were out the door. And, in 2017, Megan left her full-time job to be a full-time director of the new nonprofit. These days Sweet Cheeks is distributing some 100,000 diapers through 34 partner agencies.

“Without us, people would keep a diaper for several days, cut out the middle, stuff a diaper with paper towels, or even let their baby go without. And we are only meeting about 13% of the need in Greater Cincinnati. We have a wait list of 36 agencies who need our diapers. We need to continue to grow…and we are,” Megan said.

When I asked Megan about her greatest satisfaction from this work, she told me, “We are helping people and meeting a need that wasn’t met before. And we are able to use diapers as an incentive for other social programs. Just having diapers may not change a life but those diapers are tied to services at other nonprofits that can teach people to be great parents, give them confidence, get them out of poverty. Sometimes our diapers may be the only reason those parents keep coming back to that social service agency. I didn’t have a nonprofit background before this so it is very challenging but I love the strategies behind growing Sweet Cheeks.”

If you’d like to help, Sweet Cheeks is in need of more than 200 hours of volunteer time weekly to get things out the door. They also are always in need of diapers and monetary donations. Because of their buying power, they can purchase two to three times the amount you and I can for the money, so monetary donations are more important. Please reach out to them if you’d like to get involved.