--- title: White House Announces Plan to Make Baby Diapers Affordable description: The White House on Thursday announced a new initiative aimed at making baby diapers more affordable for struggling Americans. canonical: https://time.com/4254339/white-house-diapers-affordable/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-10T18:49:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:20:56.073Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Announces Plan to Make Baby Diapers Affordable og:description: “No family should have to choose between keeping their babies healthy and keeping the lights or heat on" og:url: https://time.com/4254339/white-house-diapers-affordable/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Announces Plan to Make Baby Diapers Affordable twitter:description: “No family should have to choose between keeping their babies healthy and keeping the lights or heat on" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # White House Announces Plan to Make Baby Diapers Affordable  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 10, 2016 6:49 PM UTC  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 10, 2016 6:49 PM UTC The White House on Thursday announced a [new initiative aimed at making baby diapers more affordable](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/03/10/diaper-divide) for struggling Americans. At least one major diaper manufacturer has agreed to help bridge the so-called “diaper divide” that affects nearly one in three families, the White House said in a statement. [Huggies](https://www.huggies.com/Rewards) said it will donate 22 million diapers this year to the National Diaper Bank, a nonprofit that distributes free diapers across the country. The collaboration is also slated to aid the [Covenant House](https://www.covenanthouse.org/), the largest privately funded agency in the U.S. that helps the homeless, according to the White House. “When families can’t afford a healthy number of diapers for their babies, they’re faced with a choice between buying diapers and paying for food, rent, or utilities like heat. That’s a choice that no family should have to make,” the White House statement said. Some of the nation’s poorest families spend about 14% of their income on diapers, which is about $936 per child each year, it said. To make ends meet, some parents stretch the time between diaper changes to make their resources last, which can lead to serious health problems, officials said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4254339/white-house-diapers-affordable/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4254339/white-house-diapers-affordable/"},"headline":"White House Announces Plan to Make Baby Diapers Affordable","datePublished":"2016-03-10T18:49:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:20:56.073Z","description":"“No family should have to choose between keeping their babies healthy and keeping the lights or heat on\"","url":"https://time.com/4254339/white-house-diapers-affordable/","keywords":["White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4254339/white-house-diapers-affordable/","name":"White House Announces Plan to Make Baby Diapers Affordable"}}]}] ```