With White House push, the diaper gap comes into view

Christine Shotts, in Springfield, Missouri, has eight kids under age 9. She works two part-time jobs and her husband works as a car mechanic, but their incomes don't stretch nearly far enough.

Jilcana Montoya has the same problem. She's on government assistance in Washington, D.C., living in transitional housing while earning her GED and caring for her 2-year-old son and 7-month-old daughter.

One of their most urgent needs is often a hidden one: keeping their kids in diapers. And they're hardly alone, driving a relatively new movement to distribute free disposable -- and sometimes cloth -- diapers to those who can afford them the least.

"We'd get a small pack of diapers and I'd have to make that stretch until the next week," said the 30-year-old Shotts, who has two kids still in diapers.

"We would scrounge up change or whatever we could. We collected cans and turned them in for recycling. We would get one size only, size 4, and I would put them all in size 4 so I could get a bigger box," she said.

This Sept. 9 photo shows boxes of donated diapers stacked in a warehouse in North Haven, Connecticut. The National Diaper Bank Network, which operates the warehouse, distributes the diapers to agencies and community-based organizations like churches, which in turn provide them to families in need. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz)

Added the 22-year-old Montoya: "I never had enough money for diapers. I would need to use the money I was going to use to eat."

Diapers can cost $70 to $80 a month.

That price tag is especially challenging for families who don't have broadband internet access (where there are more deals online), can't afford online subscription fees for retail sites, must pay in cash or live far from big-box stores to get the best diaper deals.

Government-aid programs exclude diaper purchases, and there are 5.3 million children under 3 living in need, according to research.

A network of about 320 food pantries, social service agencies and community groups have stepped in with the help of Huggies.

Since 2011, Huggies parent Kimberly-Clark has donated more than 200 million diapers and the same number of diaper wipes to the National Diaper Bank Network, based in New Haven, Connecticut.

So what took so long for the so-called "diaper gap" to be addressed?

"Most of our anti-poverty programs miss the details," said Joanne Goldblum, a former social worker who is the CEO and founder of the diaper network. "They look at the big picture and they don't look at the small picture. And the truth is that it's the little things that impact most people's day-to-day lives more than anything else."

Goldblum started small. She began a local diaper bank in New Haven in 2004 with a few friends, collecting donations and giving out diapers from her home. She established the national network, now spanning 46 states, the District of Columbia and Guam, after Huggies came knocking.

There were other diaper banks when she started hers in New Haven, but the national network helped draw attention to the issue.