A bill has been introduced in Congress to help improve access to infant formula amid shortage for families who participate in the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program. 5th District Congresswoman Jahana Hayes says she spent the week returning calls to families in the district who reached out about the supply chain issue. She says one mother found another mother sobbing while holding her 8-month-old daughter in a store aisle and a grandmother traveled to 9 different stores only to go home empty-handed.
Hayes noted that thousands of parents in Connecticut are now relying on a Facebook group to share info on where formula can be found. As a young mom, Hayes told her colleagues that she turned to the WIC program to help her family. As the Chairwoman of the Nutrition Subcommittee, she now working to protect these services.
Since April, around 40% of formula products were out of stock in seven states, including Connecticut. Nearly 44,000 families in Connecticut use WIC benefits to purchase formula.
The Access to Baby Formula Act provides flexibility so that families can continue purchasing safe infant formula with WIC benefits during extenuating circumstances, such as a supply chain disruption. Abbott Nutrition’s formula products serve 89 percent of all infants participating in WIC, according to the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service. and Hayes says their recall is particularly alarming.
Highlights of the Access to Baby Formula Act include:
The establishment of waiver authority to address emergencies, disasters and supply chain disruptions by ensuring states that contract with these companies for the WIC program can secure supplies from additional manufacturers.
The waiver of requirements that can slow down the process to get formula back on the shelves, without sacrificing safety standards.
The coordination and information sharing between the Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding any supply chain disruption, including supplemental food recalls.
WIC recipients utilize formula at roughly double the rate of non-participating families– making this crisis have a disproportionate impact on communities and families with the highest need. Further, for those able to find formula in local stores, prices have increased dramatically, in some cases rising 18% over the past year. This legislation provides a back up plan in the case of future recalls or supply chain disruptions so that we are not left agonizing over how we will feed our babies.
