Nurturing Nook offers free baby supplies while connecting parents to resources (2024)

Every parent knows that a newborn tears through diapers and baby formula. The costs quickly add up for parents, especially those living on financial margins. Tack on inflation and the rising cost of housing, and some parents are faced with difficult decisions: whether to feed and clothe their children or pay for utilities.

LaurieLaFleur, the Family Tree’s Healthy Start program communication action network coordinator, recognized the tightrope many parents were walking. She felt her program could extend to all parents— not just those participating in its programs.

Filled with diapers, baby wipes, bottles and feminine hygiene products, the Nurturing Nook seems inconspicuous enough. However, the community cupboard also works as a gateway to services, education and programs for families that might otherwise be unaware of what is available to them.

“There’s no stigma attached to it. No filling out applications or waiting,” LaFleur said.

The Nook also provides informational pamphlets on child care and programs for free and affordable children’s books and connections to resources around the community like those provided by Healthy Start.

The idea first came to LaFleur when she noticed little community fridges and pantries open across Acadiana that offered free groceries and nonperishables for those in need. While the Healthy Start program provides free counseling, education and support for families, LaFleur recognized that some families lack transportation or time to participate.

“I thought what better way to do that." LaFleur said in reference to community fridges. "We didn’t have any mom or baby items. So, I went on off on a creative journey and came up with the name the Nurturing Nook.”

The Nurturing Nook idea was in its infancy when a former co-worker invited her to a Lafayette Rotary Club meeting to speak. She pitched the idea to the club whose members promised that if she could get it off the ground, they would build the boxes.

The team placed the first Nurturing Nook in January at the Lafayette Health Unit on Willow Street. In just a few months, the program has added two more nooks. One in Grand Coteau and another in Ville Platte. LaFleur said she intends to put at least one in every Acadiana parish.

The main goal of Healthy Start, a federally funded program, is to improve health outcomes for children and mothers before, during and after pregnancy while tackling the racial inequities that manifest themselves in health disparities and outsized levels of infant mortality, LaFleur said at the Ville Platte unveiling. While something like the Nurturing Nook might only make a small dent in eliminating those disparities, it offers an opportunity to meet parents where they are.

“A lot of community members that experience health disparities and inequities also experience homelessness, lack of transportation, lack of resources and financial resources. This is a way for them to get what they need until make it to the utility bill,” LaFleur said.

For small towns like Grand Coteau and Ville Platte, the nooks go a long way for communities that have a high percentage of families that below the poverty line. In Ville Platte, 81% of households and in Grand Coteau,56% of households are considered impoverished and earn less than the minimum required to raise a family, according to a 2023 United Way report.

Naye Wilson, a community health worker for the Healthy Start program, said she is excited for her community of Ville Platte to get a nook.

Wilson moved from California to Ville Platte in 2014. She became pregnant shortly after arriving in the town and struggled to connect with resources before finding the Healthy Start program, which helped her through WIC applications.

“I got in the program. Me and my daughter’s dad went together. I lost a baby prior to moving here and we were still grieving and taking it out on each other but events at the Healthy Start program helped us so much. That’s what kept us together,” Wilson said.

Wilson said many of the people in Ville Platte are fearful of asking for help because of the stigma sometimes associated with asking for governmental assistance. Many parents are unaware of all the programs out there made just for them. She thinks the Nurturing Nook can help eliminate shame and get mothers more involved in their communities.

Stocking the Nooks comes at a cost, LaFleur said. On average, it costs her team around $125 each time they restock one box, or roughly $600 a month, she said. So far, she has received a sizable amount of donations but said more awareness is needed.

“I’m hoping to promote and get more businesses and civic organizations that would like to do supply runs in their offices and donate,” LaFleur said.

Individuals can donate to the Nurturing Nook, but LaFleur requested that all donations be made directly to the Family Tree or by connecting with local community participants by contacting their office.

LaFleur hopes to eventually have at least one Nurturing Nook in every parish in the Acadiana region, she said. She said once that is complete, she plans to focus more on Lafayette and working alongside church and religious organizations so that no parent will have to travel too far to access a nook.