ST INS CARES-Healthy Start SWFL-Diapers Change Everything

Diapers sound small until you learn the truth: families can’t buy them with SNAP or WIC, daycares often require them, and running out can spiral into stress, missed work, and avoidable doctor visits. We sit down with Amanda Brunson, Associate Executive Director of Healthy Start Southwest Florida, to explain how one nonprofit is closing that gap and strengthening maternal and infant health across Lee, Collier, Hendry, and Glades counties.

Amanda shares her personal why, including her own experience with a premature birth, limited family support nearby, and the challenges that follow a NICU stay. That story connects directly to the heart of Healthy Start’s work: home visiting programs that show up consistently, build trust, and help parents navigate pregnancy, newborn care, and early childhood with practical guidance and real resources.

We dig into what Healthy Start actually does day to day, from the Connect coordinated intake and referral system that matches families to the right services, to multiple home visiting options like Nurse-Family Partnership with registered nurse visitors, and Team Dad, a program built specifically for fathers. You’ll also hear about Help Me Grow developmental screenings and the fetal and infant mortality review work that looks for community-level improvements in birth outcomes. Along the way, Amanda breaks down how their diaper bank scales impact through partner pickup sites and National Diaper Bank purchasing power, and why monetary donations can stretch farther than most people expect.

If you want pregnancy support, parenting resources, or a way to help families thrive in Southwest Florida, this one offers clear next steps. Subscribe, share with a friend who cares about maternal and infant health, and leave a review to help more neighbors find these resources.

Healthy Start Southwest Florida
Amanda Brunson
(239) 425-6920
Customer Service: (800) 883-1959

Fort Myers Office:
1921 Jefferson Avenue Fort Myers, FL 33901
healthystartbaby.org

State Insurance USA
4450 Camino Real Way
Ft Myers, FL 33966
239-567-9992
office@StateInsuranceUSA.com
stateinsuranceusa.com
https://www.facebook.com/Stateinsuranceusa
#StateInsuranceUSA
#SupportLocal
#WeLoveOurClients
@Stateinsuranceusa

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Transcript

Welcome And Mission Of The Show

Intro/Close 0:00

Welcome to State Insurance USA Cares Podcast, where we celebrate the heart of our communities. Each episode, we highlight local charities and nonprofits who are bringing hope, health, and healing to those who need it most. Get ready to be inspired by the amazing stories of people making a difference. Because together, we care.

Meet Healthy Start And Its Reach

Gail Langner 0:19

Well, hello. Welcome to State Insurance Cares. I'm Gail Langner, and one of my very favorite parts of this program is actually introducing you to organizations that are making a difference right here in Southwest Florida today. I'm just so happy to have Amanda Brunson. She's the Associate Executive Director at Healthy Start Sotuhwest Florida. And Amanda, thanks for taking some time to be with us today and explaining to our listeners exactly what Healthy Start is.

Amanda Brunson 0:49

Well, thank you so much, Gail, for having me today. I really appreciate you helping us spread the word about the good things that our agency does in the community. So we're a community-based nonprofit that was founded in 1992. We serve Lee, Collier, Hendry, and Glade counties. And for more than 30 years, our organization has led the regional movement to improve maternal and infant health outcomes. So our mission is to support a system of care that improves the health and well-being of pregnant women and families, some of the most vulnerable population that we have in our community.

Gail Langner 1:22

Well, I know that one of our team in our label office, I just happened to mention, I said one of our donations this month was going to be to you. And she said, Oh, they're great. So um I I know that and she's in Hendry. So I I think she's probably, you know, had some help help from

Amanda’s Story And Why She Joined

Gail Langner 1:41

you. How did you actually get started in it, Amanda? What brought you to it?

Amanda Brunson 1:45

Well, what brought me to it is my own poor birth outcomes. Um, I ended up having a baby prematurely, seven weeks early. Um, I had no family support here. I had moved away. Most of my family lives in Jacksonville, about six hours away from here. And my husband's a firefighter and he had to go back to work. And I was left all alone with this special needs baby. And nobody in my family had really ever talked about, you know, having a baby that had to stay in the NICU or have any issues when coming home. And I had low fluid throughout my entire first pregnancy. And so I was on bed rest. And I just know what a huge impact a home visitor would have had on my life and having that support for myself.

Gail Langner 2:29

Especially not having your mom be close by or your mother-in-law or whatever. Yes. Oh gosh. Well, I I know you do amazing things. I I I know one of the things that we donated to as far as state insurance cares, was actually your diaper uh bank, right? And that's a local. Tell tell our listeners exactly what that is, if you

Why A Diaper Bank Matters

Gail Langner 2:52

would.

Amanda Brunson 2:52

So so we have four home visiting programs. And in all of our home visiting programs, the number one request everyone would have is does the home visitor have any diapers that they could bring into the home? Because a lot of people don't realize you cannot purchase diapers with Snap or WIC. There's no government assistance that you can actually purchase diapers with. And so it was huge to all of our families when with home visiting, we were able to start bringing them diapers. And so back in 2023, we decided to become an official diaper bank. And so that allowed us the buying power, we're members of the National Diaper Bank. And so we're able to purchase diapers for 16 cents, which retail, they run between 36 and 55 cents, so a lot less. And we've we started off just primarily wanting to do it through our home visiting programs, and then COVID happened. And we started, we started partnering with some other agencies, and then Hurricane Ian happened, and that kind of blew the lid off of what we intended on doing. And last year we actually did 1.6 million diapers.

Gail Langner 4:01

Um gosh, Amanda. Yeah, that's incredible. How do you know what sizes? I mean, they come in all different sizes. Okay, so I'm I'm gonna date myself, and everybody, all of my listeners are gonna know. We did, I mean, I tried to use pampers with my daughter, and she was very allergic. She the fragrance and everything that was in the diapers. So I had cloth diapers with my daughter. So that was other than going to the laundromat because I didn't have a washer and dryer in my home, you know, that's what, but the cost and and the, like I said, the sizes, how do you know?

Amanda Brunson 4:38

Well, so we work with all of our partner agencies and we give the family the diaper size that they need. We carry diapers newborn up to size seven generally. Um, well, a lot of it depends on the donations that we receive. And so we we grow with the baby. So as they grow into a new diaper size, we grow with them. We did try the cloth diaper approach um about 10 years ago with our agency with home visiting. And what we found was a lot of our families do not have the washers and dryers in their homes. And the new cloth diapers actually have a lot of chemicals in them that they didn't in the past. So if you don't wash them on an extremely high heat, the baby was getting a rash. Sure. So we're spending more money on diaper on diaper cream than we would have in just disposable diapers.

Pickup Sites And Partner Agencies

Gail Langner 5:25

Right. Well, I know that uh next month we're actually donating to a Bonita Assistance Office, and and they said that they they um partner with you as well.

Amanda Brunson 5:36

They do, they do. So we actually have 12 um partner pickup sites in Lee County. We have three in Hendry County, and then we have two in Collier County currently. And Bonita Springs Assistance is one of our pickup sites in Bonita Springs in Lee County. And so what we do is we give the diapers to those partner agencies, and then they decide how they want to do the distribution. So some of our partners stay open five days a week, and families can come pick up diapers regularly. Some only do a diaper distribution once a month, but we really allow our partners to work that out and kind of intertwine it into what they're already doing with the community. Right, exactly.

Programs Beyond Diapers

Gail Langner 6:18

Well, I know we're talking a lot about the diapers, and and you know, obviously I know that that's actually where you put our funds. But what other things um does Healthy Start do that really our listeners need to know, Amanda?

Amanda Brunson 6:30

So we actually have eight programs underneath our umbrella. So we have one coordinated intake and referral system, which is called Connect, because we realize that people got very confused over which home visiting program fit their needs best. And so we created that program. So it's kind of one-stop shopping. They give the information to a care coordinator, and then we figure out which program fits their needs best. Then we have four home visiting programs. We have Healthy Start, Nurse Family Partnership, CAPTA, and then we just introduced Team Dad about two years. I guess we're I nope, I mistake. We're three years into Team Dad now, and so that's a home visiting program specifically for the dads. Wow. Then we have one developmentally delayed detection program called Help Me Grow. And so that's to increase early intervention and any developmental delays. Another thing that came from our home visiting programs, we complete the ASQ assessments during our home visiting programs, and we realized that there was a lot of other children in the homes, older children, that weren't being identified as delayed. And so we brought that program on. And then we have a research and review program called FEMAR, it's fetal infant mortality review. And what we do is we look at poor birth outcomes and try to figure out what we could have done as a community better. Um, we have two groups through that program, and so we really just look at what happened during the fetal demise and what we what we could have implemented to have a better outcome.

Gail Langner 7:58

Incredible. Um, what there's so many things I could ask you, actually, actually keep you on here for a really long time, but I know we have we do have a time limit. I we don't I don't want to keep you too long, but there's so many the different programs that

How To Get Help And Referrals

Gail Langner 8:13

you have. How so how would someone, let's say it was me, let's say that I really needed help, how would I reach you? How how would I know to reach you?

Amanda Brunson 8:22

So the easiest way is to visit our website, which is healthystartbaby.org. Um, we have a short intake form on that, on that page. We have a long intake form. So for example, um, if you if you found somebody in the community that you met, you know, at church or somewhere they really needed assistance, you could make the referral for them, or they can go on and do their self-referral. They can always call our office at 239-425-6920. And then we've also started to have a bigger presence on social media as well. So you can visit us on our Facebook page, our Instagram, our TikTok page. And we've actually had a lot of communication recently through TikTok, and we really try to meet everybody where they're at, and we're finding that a lot of the younger moms are wanting to get their information on TikTok. So we we recently started that endeavor, and we have we've had a lot of communication through that.

Nurses Social Workers And Case Management

Gail Langner 9:20

That's incredible. What about medical assistance? If if let's say you're doing a home visit and you go, oh boy, they really need, they need a nurse or they need, you know, something, what do you do then?

Amanda Brunson 9:32

Well, that is what's fantastic about our various programs. So, for example, nurse family partnership, it's only a registered nurse as the home visitor. And so those are going to be for our high-risk moms. And so by having a registered nurse, and that stays with the baby up till age two. So they're with the mom during the pregnancy all the way up till baby's age two. And then our healthy start home visiting also has registered nurses and licensed social workers with those programs as well. And so that's what's so great about our Connect program, the coordinated intake and referral program, because by capturing all the information from the family, it really allows us to put them in the best program with the best home visitor.

Gail Langner 10:14

What about if you see? I'm sorry to keep this firing these questions. What if you see, wow, they really need food?

Amanda Brunson 10:24

So we have that's what we have a lot of partner agencies. And so one part of our program is case management. And so we'll help refer them. And by, I will say, by having the diaper bank and having so many different pickup sites at food banks, it allows us to know when all of the pickup sites are, make the referrals, have the contacts. And so we we do advocate for our clients. If so, if there's housing issues, um, food, insecurity, whatever it may be, we advocate for our clients.

Gail Langner 10:56

Okay. Lastly, I know thank you for giving us your website and your phone number because that's those are things that um I really was going to ask you anyway. And so I got that out of yeah, we got that out of the way. I have to answer that. I have to fire that question at you.

Biggest Needs And How Donations Help

Gail Langner 11:10

Um, but what what do you need the most? Money? Do you need what do you need? Money? Yeah. I think everything that's why we're here. Yeah, just to help you.

Amanda Brunson 11:20

I know, and that's one big thing. I love it when people host diaper drives for us. It's it's amazing, and we will always be so grateful for the items. But as I mentioned, our buying power through the National Diaper Bank, we really can purchase a lot more with monetary donations. Right. Um, and so that that is that is probably our biggest need. Sure.

Gail Langner 11:43

Exactly. And that's okay to say because that's what state insurance cares is all about. We we not only just want to give you the donation, but it through this, through, you know, posting our um, you know, the picture with the big check on Facebook and and also doing this podcast alone uh with the Good Neighbor podcast with Jim, this gets the word out. We try to help you as much as we can because we know what it's like when you're a nonprofit. You don't have the money to spend. And if you do, you need it to go where it needs to go. So um I'm I'm glad if if you need the money, is there a place to donate on your website?

Amanda Brunson 12:22

Yes, on our website, you can donate. Okay. And I just wanted to mention 95% of our budget goes back to our programs. And so we really try to because I just like everybody else in the community, I donate as well to you know, various programs. And I can say I feel really good whenever people donate to us because it goes directly back into the community and it really does make a huge difference because a lot of people think supplying diapers, you know, is just a small thing, but you're actually helping that mom with her mental health because she's not stressing out about finding diapers for her child. You're helping that baby not have to return to the pediatrician five million times because of a diaper rash because they weren't changed regularly. And you're helping the mom go to work because a lot of the daycares will not accept the babies unless they're they have diapers for them. And so it it really does make a huge impact in our community. Okay.

Wrap Up And How To Nominate

Gail Langner 13:23

Well, Amanda, thanks so much for joining us today. I will see you at the community resource fair on June 27th. You'll be there, right? Yes, we will be there. I will see you there. And so thank thanks for coming on today. I I really appreciate it. And I appreciate all that you and Healthy Start uh Southwest Sorta do for the area. Thank you. Thank you so much, Gail.

Intro/Close 13:44

Thanks for tuning in to the Fort Myers Beach Good Neighbor podcast. No shade, just sunshine, drama-free, positive vibes only. If you loved what you heard, share it with a friend and keep the good vibes going. Until next time, remember to cabo until ya WABO and keep being a good neighbor. Also, to nominate your favorite neighbors, local legends, heroes, or local businesses to be on the show. Go to fmbgoodneighbor.com. That's fmbgoodneighbor.com. Or call 239-427-4100. We want to send out some island love escape insurance USA. They are the good neighbors and businesses that allow us to share the soul of our community with every listener. From local stories to the positive vibe of island life. Here's to celebrating all the big Sport Myers beach, this place of paradise. We all love.