MINNEAPOLIS, Minn — Families across the country have been struggling recently, trying to find baby formula. The shortage started when Abbott’s largest formula plant in Michigan came under scrutiny early this year for contamination concerns. The FDA began investigating four bacterial infections among infants who consumed powdered formula from the plant. Two of the babies died.
When that plant stopping making formula, parents had to scramble to find the infant formula so many families rely on to keep their babies fed.
A Minnesota mom decided to take matters into her own hands by creating a "Formula Finder" Facebook group... which does exactly that!
The Facebook group is made up of parents searching for formula and people willing to report what they see on store shelves, and sometimes buy what they can to share with other group members.
Tosha Anderson, the group's founder, knows how important it is to be able to meet your baby's most basic needs and how scary it can be when you might not know where their next bottle will be coming from.
"Yesterday there was a woman who needed formula and someone had it but she needed to use her WIC account, so she was like 'I can't pay you because I need to go to the store' and she was like no you can just have them," Tosha said about some of the users in the group. "It is 'Minnesota Nice' at its finest and it continues to blow both my husband and I away of how generous people are when push comes to shove."
Tosha has a little 12 month old son who was in the NICU and has needed formula since day one. She knows just how important a group like this is for so many families where breastfeeding is not an option.
So far, Tosha's "Formula Finder" Facebook group has helped hundreds of people in Minnesota and she just started it Wednesday. If you are looking for formula or want to help those in need, you can find the "Formula Finder - Minnesota" group here.
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