Kelley Massengale was having a cup of coffee in downtown Durham when she noticed a donation box for the Diaper Bank of North Carolina. She had never heard of the organization. Nor had many others, judging by a handwritten sign on the wall. It urged people not to drop dirty diapers in the box.
Almost four years later, as Massengale prepares to graduate with a doctorate in public health education, the Diaper Bank is distributing over two million diapers a year across North Carolina. It has grown from a fledgling nonprofit into an organization with aspirations of meeting basic needs of low-income families in all 100 counties in the state.
Massengale has used research and grant writing skills she gained at UNCG to help the Diaper Bank raise more than $150,000 in funding since 2014.