Our History

Baby Buggy, a 501 c 3 Accredited Charity founded in 2001, is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing New York City’s families in need with essential equipment, clothing, and products for their infants and young children.

Since 2001, Baby Buggy has delivered over 4,000,000 essential items to thousands of families through our network of over 50 qualified social service partners.

Today, over 500,000 children live in poverty in NYC. Baby Buggy´s goal is to help them access the essentials they need to ensure their safety and well-being. By providing concrete resources to their families through our network of social service professionals, we help alleviate the stress of living in poverty, and we help prevent crisis.

Find Out Who We Are

See Our Timeline:

Updated July 2009

May 2001

  • Baby Buggy Becomes a Non-Profit Organization


October 2001

  • Baby Buggy conducts the first Baby Buggy Gear and Clothing Drive held at Chelsea Market
  • Baby Buggy starts work with 9/11 families, Safe Horizon, Women In Need and Sanctuary For Families to bring the donations to New York City families in need. The idea of Love Recycled and families helping families becomes a reality.


October 2002

  • Baby Buggy begins giving monthly donations to the social service sites in order to serve the entire 0-4 year old population at these sites.


December 2002

  • The Children’s Place donates over 120 cases of clothing to Baby Buggy. A wonderful partnership begins.


April 2003

  • Baby Buggy creates our Advisory Council of NYC social service experts.


Fall 2003

  • Baby Buggy’s network now includes 50 social service sites.
  • Baby Buggy increases its volunteer opportunities to include intergenerational opportunities with senior citizens, college and high school students, many corporate groups and families volunteering together.
  • Corporate Gift In Kind Donors respond to our appeals and send over $300,000 in corporate donations.


February 2004

  • Baby Buggy commits to homelessness prevention in New York City and starts serving the six Department of Homeless Services Home Base programs.


March 2004

  • Haddad Brands donates over $25,000 worth of brand new children’s clothing. Their generosity continues as they later commit to donations of over 900 boxes of clothing a quarter.


May 2004

  • Baby Buggy’s social service network expands to include 67 social service sites.


June 2004

  • Baby Buggy conducts the Diaper Drive and raises 1,500,000 diapers for New York City families.


July 2004

  • Dorel Juvenile Group donates 2,065 cases worth of infant gear and products to Baby Buggy. This donation allows Baby Buggy to accept 16 more social service sites into our network, including healthcare and refugee assistance programs.


August 2004

  • Baby Buggy starts working with the Administration for Children's Services’ 15 Family Preservation Program sites in an effort to help families stay safely together and avoid having children taken into foster care unnessesarily.


January 2005

  • Baby Buggy hires our first Volunteer Coordinator, quadrupling the number of volunteer opportunities.


February 2005

  • In response to a dramatic increase in the number of infant fatalities in NYC caused by rollover suffocation, Baby Buggy launches the Baby Buggy Crib Drive at Harlem and Woodhull Medical Centers. This initiative provides parents with educational materials on safe sleeping techniques and provides them with cribs and bassinets for their newborns.


March 2005

  • The Emergency Assistance Program is launched as Baby Buggy meets the needs of families in crisis from across the city. These are one-time donations to families and caseworkers from organizations that are not part of our network of social service providers but have nowhere else to turn.


September 2005

  • Friends of Baby Buggy is created to increase public awareness and fundraising efforts of the organization.
  • Baby Buggy’s Department of Homeless Services Program serves its 500th family.


Winter 2005

  • Foundations and corporations give financial support to Baby Buggy in support of our prevention program assistance


January 2006

  • Baby Buggy supports Early Childhood Education by partnering with Head Start programs in the Bronx, Coney Island, Jamaica, and Far Rockaway.


April 2006

  • The Family Preservation Program assists its 500th family, bringing them the essential resources they need to ensure the safety and well-being of their young children.


July 2006

  • Baby Buggy supports the nationally recognized Nurse-Family Partnership program, bringing critical resources to first time mothers with low income in all five locations in New York City.


December 2006

  • The Children’s Place continues to donate hundreds of boxes of children’s items each quarter. To date, they have donated over $650,000 worth of clothing and accessories to assist the families Baby Buggy serves.


January 2007

  • Baby Buggy’s partnership with the Department of Homeless Services continues to flourish. 1,500 families have been served to date.


February 2007

  • Baby Buggy’s Crib Drive reaches its goal of distributing 3,000 cribs and bassinets to families in need in the Harlem and Bushwick, Brooklyn neighborhoods. Initiative now moves into second phase as Project Safe Sleep.
  • Baby Buggy expands volunteer program to include offsite opportunities. Credit Suisse begins regular volunteer events at their offices.


January 2008

  • January is the busiest month in Baby Buggy’s history: 266 donations were assembled and distributed to NYC social service agencies!


February 2008

  • Emergency Assistance program assists its 500th family.


March 2008

  • Baby Buggy is included as a GlobalGiving project on its online giving site, www.globalgiving.com , which will help raise awareness for our distribution of crucial baby item and gear to families at an early education program in the Bronx.
  • Baby Buggy launches its first Family Resource Center at St. Anthony’s Head Start in the Bronx, committing to serve 60 families by providing quarterly donations of gear, clothing and baby products, monthly donations of diapers, as well as financial literacy and credit workshops.
  • The monthly allotted number of requests is lifted for the Head Start Program, Nurse-Family Partnership Program, New York Presbyterian NICU and Harlem Hospital so that more families can receive Baby Buggy resources.


June 2008

  • Baby Buggy begins serving CUCS Single Stop in East Harlem by distributing diaper donations that serve as an incentive for families to receive free financial counseling, legal assistance and benefits analysis, which has helped many clients identify several thousands of dollars available to them in public assistance and benefits, tax credits, and work supports.
  • Lower East Side Nurse-Family Partnership joins Baby Buggy and receives its first donation of cribs and diapers.


July 2008

  • 15 families at St. Anthony’s Head Start in the Bronx graduate from a financial literacy workshop series organized by Baby Buggy and facilitated by Credit Suisse volunteers; the workshop focuses on budgeting, saving, credit repair and debt reduction.
  • Baby Buggy receives its largest corporate donation in its history: Children’s Place donates over 30,000 children’s T-shirts and over 100,000 pairs of jeans.


August 2008

  • Buggy opens its second Family Resource Center at Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service in East Harlem, committing to serve 150 families by providing quarterly donations of gear, clothing and baby products, as well as monthly donations of diapers.


September 2008

  • Baby Buggy has now distributed over 3,000,000 total items to NYC families in need.
  • St. Luke’s-Roosevelt receives their first donation of cribs via Baby Buggy’s Project Safe Sleep. The Parent-Infant Center in the Child and Family Institute at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital is a prevention program that provides psychotherapeutic services to high-risk pregnant women and families with young children between the ages of birth to three. Many of the families have been exposed to multiple stressors including depression, anxiety, ongoing or past trauma, and teen and single parenthood.


October 2008

  • As a result of the Baby Buggy diaper incentives, Single Stop sees a significant increase in enrollment of families with young children and undocumented immigrants with citizen children; 38% of all Single Stop clients are Baby Buggy families!
  • Baby Buggy's partnership with the Department of Homeless Services, one of Baby Buggy's oldest partnerships, celebrates a new milestone - 3,000 families served.


November 2008

  • 17 St. Anthony’s client families graduate from the first Credit Where Credit Is Due financial literacy and credit repair workshop series organized by Baby Buggy.
  • In time for Thanksgiving, Baby Buggy launches its Healthy Food and Nutrition Initiative at St. Anthony’s Head Start in the Bronx - providing participants with monthly donations of free, healthy and nutritious groceries.


December 2008

  • Baby Buggy invites representatives from several community agencies to present at a Speaker Series at St. Anthony’s Head Start in the Bronx informing families of crucial services available to them, ranging from formal banking services and legal assistance to financial and credit counseling - 24 client families attend!
  • Center for Family Representation Inc. joins Baby Buggy network and receives a donation of baby gear, essentials and clothing. CFR works to help families whose children are at risk of foster care or who are being investigated by ACS to prevent foster care or if a child must enter foster care, to help that child safely reunify with her family as soon as possible.
  • In 2008 Baby Buggy distributed the following: 905 Baby Monitors, 160 Bassinets, 617 Bath Tubs, 828 Breast Pumps, 1,204 Car Seats, 1,990 Cribs, 956 Front Carriers, 558 Gates, 927 Highchairs, 915 Playpens, 1,715 Strollers, 254 Double Strollers.
  • “An Evening with Jerry Seinfeld and Friends“ raises over $1.4 Million for Baby Buggy.


January 2009

  • 2008 marks the first time that Baby Buggy distributes over 1,000,000 items to NYC families in need in a single year!
  • Baby Buggy begins its distribution of food gifts - healthy and nutritious grocery bags - to participants in Fun Food Smart Food, a twelve-week after-school hands-on cooking, nutrition and food education program for youth piloted successfully by the Children’s Aid Society.
  • What a wonderful way to start the New Year! Delta Children’s Products donates 100 portable cribs to Baby Buggy’s Project Safe Sleep so we can continue to provide essential gear to NYC children.


February 2009

  • 9 St. Anthony’s client families graduate from the 2nd Credit Where Credit Is Due workshop cycle covering financial literacy and credit repair.
  • Baby Buggy trains a group of 7 Credit Suisse volunteers to interview 11 client families from the Bronx using the self-sufficiency calculator to determine their eligibility for work supports, tax credit, & other benefits as well as how to access them; our belief is that this will help improve the stability and self-sufficiency of these families.
  • Since June 2008, Baby Buggy has donated more than 100,000 items to CUCS Single Stop client families in East Harlem. Baby Buggy donations of diapers and other baby incentivize families to receive free financial counseling, legal assistance, and benefits screening.


March 2009

  • Baby Buggy expands its Healthy Food and Nutrition Initiative to Tolentine Head Start in the Bronx - providing client families with free, healthy and nutritious groceries.
  • BabyAge.com donates 38 double strollers and 2 car seats to help Baby Buggy provide essential gear to NYC families.


April 2009

  • Speech-Language Pathologist Stephanie Sigal M.A. CCC-SLP volunteers with Baby Buggy and holds a Say and Play Communication Enrichment Workshop at the Child Center of New York Sonia Strumpf Clinic in Queens to teach families to maximize children’s speech and language skills.
  • Baby Buggy's celebrates a milestone in the 3,000th family assisted through the Nurse Family Partnership.
  • Baby Buggy receives its biggest book donation to date from First Book: 4,304 books for young readers! For many children receiving this donation, this will be the very first book they own
  • Baby Buggy receives 150 Maclaren strollers, which were used in a display in Central Park for the World Autism Awareness Day (April 2nd) by Autism Speaks to bring attention that 1 in 150 children is diagnosed with autism.
  • Pampers donates $50,000 in diapers to Baby Buggy, its largest diaper donation to date
  • Children’s Place donates 50 boxes of children’s clothing and accessories in their 60th donation since 2002


May 2009

  • Buggy offers a 3rd Credit Where Credit Is Due Workshop cycle to the families of St. Anthony’s Head Start in the Bronx. Congratulations to the 11 graduates who are now better equipped to reduce their debt and improve their credit scores!


June 2009

  • Baby Buggy brings three more Nurse-Family Partnership sites (Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn); Baby Buggy is proud to continue supporting this impressive program to improve pregnancy outcomes, child health and development and parental economic self sufficiency.
  • Aveeno Baby, Nickelodeon, Hugh Jackman, Christy Turlington, Melania Trump, Jerry Seinfeld, Mariska Hargitay and others support the 3rd Annual Baby Buggy Bedtime Bash.


August 2009

  • Rosie Pope makes their first donation to Baby Buggy, consisting of $50,000 worth of maternity clothing


October 2009

  • Lily House, a Safe Horizon Domestic Violence shelter, joins Baby Buggy network and receives its first donation of baby essentials. Lily House is a Tier II facility with a capacity to serve 27 families at any given time, providing women and children with a refuge and comprehensive services, including counseling, life skills and parenting courses, child care, and medical services, giving these women an opportunity to rebuild their lives.


November 2009

  • Baby Buggy has now donated over 4,000,000 total items to NYC families in need.
  • Congratulations to the 20 participants who completed the fourth cycle of Credit Where Credit Is Due financial education workshops at St. Anthony’s Head Start in the Bronx!
  • Baby Buggy supports the expansion of Fun Food Smart Food, a 12-week hands-on cooking, nutrition and food education program piloted successfully by the Children’s Aid Society, by providing take-home food gifts - healthy and nutritious grocery bags - to students at 10 after-school program sites throughout New York City.
  • K.I.D.S. & Babies R Us donates twice this month enriching our inventory in essential baby items ranging from feeding items and baby toys to critical gear, including strollers, breast pumps and crib/toddler bed mattresses.
  • Dream Team Baby volunteers with Baby Buggy to hold a Sleep Talk workshop at the St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Parent-Infant Center. This workshop provides new parents with wonderful 'sleep teaching' services to help them teach their babies to sleep through the night - what a gift!


December 2009

  • Children’s Place makes their 70th Donation to Baby Buggy since 2002 as one of our most loyal donors.
  • Haddad donates $185,000 in their 17th donation
  • Baby Buggy holds its first ever “LoveRecycled“ Gear Drive. With the help of donors like JCPenney, Baby Bjorn, Clek, Maclaren, the event brings in over 400 pieces of gear and $50,000.
  • This month, Baby Buggy donates 1,300 packs of diapers and 432 pieces of gear, including cribs, strollers, high chairs, car seats, breast pumps, and baby bath tubs to client families in need throughout the five boroughs!


January 2010

  • Baby Buggy has now donated 200,000 items to Nurse Family Partnership Programs
  • What a Happy New Year! Children's Place donates over 300 boxes of children's clothing, accessories and footwear.


February 2010

  • Baby Buggy receives its third 4-Star Rating from Charity Navigator
  • Supporter Heidi Klum raises over $30k for Baby Buggy by donating a portion of proceed of sales from her two new maternity lines.
  • Buggy trains Credit Suisse employees and holds a benefits analysis session to screen St. Anthony’s Head Start families for their eligibility to receive over 20 public benefits and tax credits - such a big help for our client families!
  • So touching to see kids helping kids: Oceanside Primary School in Long Island held a Book Drive for Baby Buggy. Over 600 books were personally inscribed by the young donors to wish new owners a happy reading!


March 2010

  • Bank of America holds a Diaper Drive for Baby Buggy and collects 1,735 diapers. Bank of America volunteers hauled a cart stacked with diaper cases from a local department store to Baby Buggy through the busy streets of Midtown. Definitely one of the most touching donations in the Baby Buggy’s history! Thank you Bank of America volunteers!
  • Appaman donates 400 beautiful windbreakers to Baby Buggy. A perfect spring gift
  • Johnson & Johnson donates 1000 tubes of Aveeno diaper cream. There are going to be a lot of happy baby bums thanks to this donation!


March 2010

  • Children's Place donates 39,600 pairs of brand new children's socks for little boys and girls. Oh, how many many happy feet we'll meet!
  • K.I.D.S. & Babies R Us showers Baby Buggy this month with two wonderful donations of baby essentials ranging from sippy cups, toys and tummy-time floor gyms to critical baby gear totaling: 4 baby monitors, 22 front carriers, 11 car seats, 6 breast pumps, 14 baby bath tubs, 1 double stroller, 23 strollers, 2 toddler beds, 1 highchair and 22 safety gates.


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