Finding the Formula: WIC employees find food for babies through photo sharing
Janna Hughitt showing a recent photo of infant formula supply at a local store.
From North Central Public Health & Oregon Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC):
If you’ve seen someone taking pictures of the infant formula supply at the local store, there’s a good chance they were WIC employees from North Central Public Health District, doing their utmost to stay on top of availability during the ongoing formula shortage.
The WIC staff’s goal is to have real-time, store-specific information on what is available, said Maricela Elias, WIC Program Coordinator. WIC is a nutrition program for mothers and children.
Between the three WIC staff, they cover the three stores in The Dalles that sell WIC-approved formula: Safeway, Fred Meyer and Walgreen’s.
They take photos of formula availability at least two to three times a week and share them with each other via email.
“It’s been so helpful. I reference the pictures all the time,” Elias said. If a picture is a little outdated, and they’re working with a parent in need of a certain formula, they will call around to stores to get an up-to-the-moment account of availability. “That’s how committed we are,” Elias said.
If they learn a certain store has the product, “I tell the mom, ‘It’s there, go now,’” she said.
While WIC staffers are willing to help parents locate formulas, they also help them brainstorm ways they can be self-sufficient and look for it on their own. But they also recognize that people who are under intense stress aren’t always able to process information like they normally would.
The struggle mainly is to find the sensitive, soy, and specialty formulas, said Janna Hughitt, a WIC certifier.
Formula shortages first started last November, but that was due to shipping bottlenecks, Elias said. Then, in late February, news came of a formula recall affecting the Similac brand, which was made at a plant in Michigan by a company called Abbott, a major formula producer.
The recall occurred after four babies were sickened, two of whom died, and all had consumed formula made at the Michigan plant.
That’s when phone calls began pouring in from parents. Local residents scoured for formula from Hermiston to Wood Village, said Hughitt.
“It causes so much stress and anxiety to parents as they worry and wonder how they are going to feed their child and that is what has led so many people to try and find other options like goats milk or making homemade formula, which is not at all recommended,” Hughitt said.
Abbott just restarted its Michigan plant, and meanwhile, it has imported formula from its plants in other countries. It will take eight weeks from the resumption of production for the product to be shipped to store shelves.
(For more information, please, contact North Central Public Health District at (541) 506-2600, visit us on the web at www.ncphd.org or find us on Facebook.)
