President Barack Obama commemorated Mother's Day with a Medium post explaining his plan to help families that have difficulty affording diapers.
"Last December, a young mother from Illinois wrote to me with a plea for help," Obama wrote. "Even after dropping out of school and taking a part-time job to provide for her family, she still struggled to make ends meet, in part because of the cost of diapers for her newborn baby."
The president then discussed his plans to address the "diaper gap." Nearly 1 in 3 American families struggle to afford enough diapers, according to the White House.
"In addition to addressing the diaper gap in my budget, I challenged the private sector to apply their expertise and innovative thinking toward creating a solution for families that cannot afford diapers," he wrote. "That’s millions of more diapers for low-income families. That’s more babies who are being kept clean, healthy and safe. That’s more parents — and more moms on this Mother’s Day — who can go to sleep at night, confident that they’re meeting one of their child’s most fundamental needs."
Over 740 nonprofit locations nationwide have been accepted into the Community Diaper Program, which aims to provide diapers to low-income families for free, Obama said.
He then called on Republicans and Democrats, as well as the public and private sectors, to work together on the issue and expressed appreciation for those who participated in the program.
"In addition to saying thank you to all the mothers out there — looking at you, Michelle! — I want to recognize all the companies, nonprofits, community organizations and American citizens that have banded together to address the diaper gap."