Baby formula exchanges pair donors with families in need

Websites appear that match people who have extra baby formula on hand with families struggling to find the nutrients amid severe national shortages in stores and online.

People with formula for babies who do not need can sign up to donate the products, while parents and caregivers can register to ask for what they need. It is the last blatant effort of enterprising parents who want to help each other.

Keiko Zoll of Swampscott, Massachusetts, launched The Free Formula Exchange, a national mutual aid network, last week after listening to a podcast on scarcity and watching reports of desperate parents looking for formula. Zoll, herself a father, also recalled the difficulty she had when she was a young mother finding certain products.

“It reminded me of when I was that mother nine years ago and was the mother of a premature baby who needed a specialized formula,” she told CBS MoneyWatch. “It was very hard to find and very stressful, and that was during a time of abundance.”

“I couldn’t understand being that premature mother now, trying to find a specialized formula when no one can find formula,” Zoll added.

How does the exchange work?

People looking for formula can visit The Free Formula Exchange and register to order the products they need. People who have formula can list the products they have in stock on the site. Both the applicants’ and donor profiles are visible to each other and they themselves initiate the connections.

“Each party has access to the other party’s database,” Zoll said. “It requires the initiative of both parties: if you ask for a formula, you approach people who have the brand you are looking for; if you are giving, you are looking for someone who matches what you have.”

The site, which has only been in operation since May 13th. It has received approximately 3,000 formula requests since its launch. Zoll estimates that the exchange can currently accommodate about 300 of them.

“For every 10 applications, we only have one person available to donate. I want to reduce this ratio as much as possible and ideally I would have a one to one ratio where every person requesting a formula can connect. someone who has a supply to give, “he said.

Another website called Baby Formula Exchange, created by gymnast and Olympic mother Shawn Johnson East, works similarly.

“My great husband took an idea I had and made it a reality in 72 hours,” Johnson said in a video on Instagram after struggling to find formula for her young son, Jett.

Someone on Johnson’s network spotted the product he was looking for in a store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and sent it to Johnson East in Nashville, Tennessee, prompting an idea for an online exchange.

How did we get here?

Baby formula has been scarce since February, when Abbott Nutrition shut down its largest home formula plant after consumers reported that four babies who had consumed products made at the facility had contracted serious bacterial infections. . Two of the children later died.

The shutdown of the Abbott plant exacerbated existing constraints due to pandemic-related supply chain thicknesses, and retailers began rationing supplies. A handful of companies dominate the market, while strict Food and Drug Administration standards make it difficult for foreign companies to sell formula in the U.S.

Abbott said Monday he had reached an agreement with the FDA that he hopes will allow the company reopen its main plant in two weeks. The FDA is also looking to make it easier for foreign manufacturers to ship formula to the U.S.

However, experts say it could take months for the new inventory to reach store shelves after manufacturing resumes at Abbott’s facility. Meanwhile, pediatricians have it he warned parents not to make their own formula or dilute your supply to make it last longer.

“The website is a simple solution to a complex problem. It’s connecting people who need formula with people who have more to give,” Zoll said. “In the absence of additional supply to the market, here is at least a temporary solution for families. I will know that this has been successful when I can close the website and it does not need to exist.”