Records show California warned Baby2Baby diaper plan could waste supplies

California records warned that Baby2Baby’s diaper plan could waste taxpayer-funded supplies because every newborn would be sent home with 400 diapers in limited sizes. Despite those warnings, the state moved ahead with Golden State Start, the diaper program Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on May 8 as a first-in-the-nation effort to ease family costs and support infant and maternal health.

Baby2Baby’s FAQ says the nonprofit is under contract for $6.2 million to distribute 40 million diapers statewide over two years. The program gives 400 free diapers to every baby born in participating hospitals, regardless of family income, and Baby2Baby’s materials say it is California’s new diaper access initiative. State materials described the rollout as a California-branded partnership built to reach newborns in hospitals rather than through a retail or home-delivery system.

That design now sits at the center of the accountability question. Records show the other finalist offered more diapers, more sizes and a direct-to-consumer option, while Baby2Baby’s plan relied on a narrower hospital handoff. The chosen model gave each family the same bundle at the start, but the competing proposal appears to have been built for a wider range of baby needs and a distribution method that could follow families after discharge. The state’s own records later showed the Baby2Baby arrangement could lead to waste because the program would send every baby home with 400 diapers in limited sizes.

Public criticism sharpened after the program’s launch math became a flash point. Questions swirled over claims that taxpayers were paying as much as 50 cents per diaper, while the state would not release key Baby2Baby records tied to the contract. Newsom’s office dismissed earlier reporting on the diaper deal as “demonstrably false,” even as the contract’s structure and the limited-size distribution plan remained under scrutiny.

By July 13, the deal had already prompted a formal demand for review. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust asked California State Auditor Grant Parks to investigate the Newsom administration’s no-bid diaper contracts, turning a family-support program into a test of whether the state picked the most efficient design or the most politically convenient one.