FLOWER MOUND, Texas — As baby formula arrives from overseas, the immediate supply won't appear on store shelves. At least 75,000 pounds is being distributed across the country to hospitals and doctors who can give it to babies who need special formula.
Meanwhile, families are leaning on others to find baby formula. A Flower Mound mother, Jennifer Walton, created an online community to do just that.
Walton's daughter is 6 months old. She's had a hard time finding the baby formula her child needs.
"I got really, really mad. And I said, well, I'm going to do what I can to fix it."
She created a Facebook group called "Formula Fed Babies". In less than two weeks, Walton's page gained more than 2,400 members. While most of the members are from North Texas, Walton said it's open to anyone.
"We've got people in Louisiana, Nebraska, Colorado. I'm shipping some formula to a lady in South Carolina today that she needed, and so it's definitely reached nationwide," she said.
She encourages more people to join the group during this baby formula crisis, not just those who need formula.
Anyone who goes to the grocery store can take a few extra minutes by looking in the baby formula aisle, take a photo of what's left, and post it on the page with a time stamp to help families locate where to go.
"People are uploading pictures with a time stamp and a location, because our WIC parents that are needing to buy formula with their vouchers can't pay a person back. We're definitely trying to serve a wide range of individuals," said Walton.
Each day, this mother makes two posts that people can comment on. One is an "In Search Of" formula thread, and the other is an "Available Formula" thread.
Walton is hopeful that the formula shortage will get better, but said it never should have gotten to this point. While families wait for improvement in supply, she is focused on meeting immediate needs.
This Flower Mound mom built a community she hopes will fall apart soon.
She said, "I want this group to be completely defunct and unnecessary."
WFAA has reached out to see if our hospitals will get any of the overseas formula shipments. At the time of publication, Parkland Health said it will not be receiving the overseas baby formula shipment. Cook Children's won't either; they work with Mother's Milk Bank of North Texas.