Cotton candy, a dunk tank, and a 16-team cornhole tournament will share the lawn with something far more serious on August 14 at The Other Side Village in Salt Lake City: a statewide push to collect diapers for families who can't afford them. HomeAid Utah's Big Top Diaper Drive Extravaganza runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is free and open to the whole family, blending carnival games, face painting, balloon animals, and a petting zoo with a cause organizers say quietly drains household budgets across the state.
According to ABC4 Utah, HomeAid Utah's Lisa Wright provided details on the drive, noting that diapers collected at the event go directly to families through the Utah Foodbank. Guests can also take a guided tour of the tiny homes HomeAid Utah has built at The Other Side Village, a community designed to help residents transition out of chronic homelessness, and watch a live diaper house build happening on-site. Proceeds from the event are split 50/50 between HomeAid Utah's construction projects and Utah families' diaper needs, the station reports.
The event's agenda runs deeper than the ABC4 write-up captured. Per the Salt Lake Home Builders Association, attractions also include The Other Side Donut Truck, a tiny-home scavenger hunt, and a live build of a “Tiny Diaper House” and “Diaper Rocket” — a playful nod to the actual tiny homes that HomeAid Utah constructs a few steps away.
A Village Built on Donated Labor
The carnival's backdrop is a construction milestone. In June, builder Hamlet Homes completed the final two tiny homes of Phase One at The Other Side Village, officially finishing that stage of the master-planned neighborhood, according to a release carried by PR Newswire. HomeAid Utah constructs and renovates housing and facilities for organizations dedicated to homelessness, investing donated labor, materials, and expertise through its partnerships across the building industry.
That model played out again in March, when HomeAid Utah and Fieldstone Homes completed a tiny duplex at the village that was 85% built through in-kind donated labor and materials, saving the village more than $200,000 in operating capital, per a release detailed by Utah Business. That duplex represented units six and seven of HomeAid's commitment to build 11 homes in Phase One of the village.
Diapers as a Hidden Poverty Trap
HomeAid Utah's diaper drive is already the largest of its kind in the state, having collected more than 3.2 million diapers over its first seven years through 2025, including a record 1,004,704 diapers and 34,424 wipes in 2024 alone, the Daily Herald reported. The scale reflects a need that's easy to overlook: diaper expenses in Utah average between $100 and $400 a month, or roughly $1,000 a year per child, consuming up to 14% of income for low-income families and about 8% of earnings for full-time minimum-wage workers, according to figures from HomeAid Utah and the Utah Diaper Bank.
Survey data cited by diaper assistance organizations found that 45% of families facing diaper need must choose between buying food or diapers, with affected parents missing an average of four workdays a month because they lack the daily supply many childcare centers require, per reporting from KSL.com. Compounding the problem, federal safety-net programs like SNAP and WIC legally prohibit beneficiaries from using benefits to buy diapers, which are treated as nonessential commercial goods subject to state sales tax, the outlet notes.
State Lawmakers and Nonprofits Respond
Utah lawmakers have begun treating diaper access as a policy issue in its own right. In 2025, the Utah Legislature passed House Bill 547, creating the Diapering Supplies Fund and a voluntary tax-return contribution line that lets taxpayers donate to nonprofit diaper distribution grants starting with tax year 2025, administered by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. That same year, the Utah Diaper Bank formally merged into the Utah Food Bank to form the UFB Diaper Program, consolidating distribution through the food bank's statewide pantry network, according to the Utah Food Bank.
The scale of need mirrors broader hunger statistics: an estimated 1 in 8 Utah residents, including 1 in 6 children, experience food insecurity statewide, paralleling national data showing 1 in 3 families with young children face diaper insecurity, the food bank has reported. The Other Side Village itself sits near the site of a string of suspicious roadside fires reported by a neighbor commuting to work there, a case covered in earlier Hoodline reporting on nearby fires.
Organizers say the August 14 carnival is meant to make the cause approachable for families who show up for the games and leave having learned something about a problem hiding in plain sight. More details on the drive, including how to donate, are available through HomeAid Utah's website.
