By Tripp Henderson | Staff Writer
The City of Waco is considering installing a Safe Haven Baby Box, which would allow parents to anonymously and safely surrender an infant at a designated location.
If the city approves the proposal, the box would be located at a local fire station and be available to the entire public.
Megan Yingst-Coats, a foster mother and Communications and Development Manager at Greater Waco Legal Services, advocates for the box, citing it as a way to address child abandonment in Texas and help struggling parents.
Yingst-Coats said that Texas has the highest number of abandoned children nationwide, some of which are left in hotel rooms or dumpsters, and that a baby box located in Waco could provide a solution for many parents.
In December 2024, The Independent reported that at least 18 babies had been abandoned that year. KXXV reported that Texas has only 23 boxes. Yingst-Coats said adding a Waco location has the potential to be beneficial.
“Having one here in Waco is really helpful because we’re right in the middle of Texas, and I-35 is right here, and so it’s accessible for so many people,” Yingst-Coats said.
Yingst-Coats highlighted the value in the box being completely anonymous.
“For a lot of people, they might feel shame or guilt around leaving a baby at the hospital or just walking the baby into a fire station; they don’t want people to know it was them,” Yingst-Coats said. “And that’s one of the big pieces of why this box is so successful and why we think that we really need one here.”
Mindy Sanders, a foster parent and mother of seven children, echoed Yingst-Coats’s sentiments about the box’s anonymity. She said that some parents can be distrustful of authorities or the foster care system because of drug use or criminal history, and that may deter them from choosing a safe future for their child.
“Having the anonymity as an option where a woman could get her baby somewhere safe is just a wonderful option for people who don’t really want to interact with CPS or the authorities,” Sanders said.
Sanders said that there are always unknowns after birth, and for babies who need medical care that a parent does not have the means to provide, sometimes surrendering their child to trained professionals is the best thing they can do.
The box has an alarm system that alerts authorities as soon as a child is placed in it, Yingst-Coats said. She said the box would cost $16,000 to install, require annual maintenance checks and mandate a fire station employee to be trained to use it.
Yingst-Coats said community support has been strong, with 20 to 30 organizations supporting it and local donors contributing to the cost.
“The really beautiful thing about Waco is there’s a lot of really generous people here in our community and we have already had people come forward to say they would pay for the entire [box],” Yingst-Coats said.
