I have posted this before but will repeat it. The Relief centers will be  
flooded with baby formula. The companies bring in truckloads of formula-powdered  
and speciality formulas. After hurricane Floyd and the resulting flood( I was 
a  shelter manager), we had truckloads of formula delivered. We had people 
lined up  at the door asking for formula. From working at WIC, I knew what they 
were going  to do with it-either take it back to the big discount stores and 
trade it in for  cash to buy beer and cigarettes, or use it to cut drugs. The 
people who wre  asking for formula were not new mothers, most were older men 
saying they needed  formula for their girlfriend's baby. So I made a rule: if 
you needed formula,  you had to bring the bottles to the nurses's station, let 
them wash the bottles,  measure out the correct amount into the bottle, and 
give the mother bottled  water to mix it with. The mother HAD to come in with the 
baby in order to get  the correct education on how to properly clean and mix 
the formula. Immediately,  we had no demand for formula. We only had about 3 
babies in the shelter and they  were all older ( 10 months to about 16 months) 
infants. We even had a man who  said he was a minister come in and ask for a 
pickup truck load of formula for  his "church " members. WIC immediately issued 
emergency vouchers and came to the  shelter to help  make sure their clients' 
needs were met. I gave out one  hand pump during Floyd for a mom who 
delivered a premature baby who was at the  hospital and the mom had been discharged 
but did not have electricity to use the  electric pump she was loaned.
At Hatteras Island after hurricane Isabel they sent in a transfer truck  full 
of formula, mostly specialty formulas for an island of 900 people with 2  
babies on the island, both of whom were breastfeeding ( one was my grandbaby).  
The formula clogged ( no pun intended) up the distribution system and no one  
knew what to do with it. I finally made a suggestion which was immediately  
accepted. 
If anyone would like to know from a disaster worker's experience what  groups 
do the best job with the donated money and goods, email me  privately.
 
Barb Whitehead
eastern NC

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