SAN ANTONIO – As the country’s baby formula shortage persists, a local nonprofit has continued to get formula to the children who need it.
Any Baby Can of San Antonio has been distributing baby formula to hundreds of families and hosting formula pop-up events.
“We are still hearing (that) while volume and production has really amped up, it’s still not enough to meet the demand,” said Elyse Bernal, the president and CEO of Any Baby Can SA.
Any Baby Can has helped about 1,000 families since May.
On Wednesday, the nonprofit hosted a pop-up event at the McKenna Events Center in New Braunfels.
During their pop-up events, they give different formulas including hypoallergenic, soy and specialty options that are difficult to find at stores.
Bernal said the shortage is impacting everyone.
“Especially if you are a family that needs WIC benefits. Those have to be used in-store, in person. So I did have a mom who was going store to store to store and couldn’t get information on where would you have more. And she was just desperate by the time she came to our office,” Bernal said.
This is the sixth pop-up event the nonprofit has hosted.
“We have two more scheduled and we will continue to do them until the need persists because there’s still very much a formula crisis happening,” Bernal said.
Melissa Villarreal said it has been difficult to find formula for her 6-month-old son Jackson.
“Jackson has a lot of reflux issues. He has Sandifer syndrome, so he has to have specialty formula,” Villarreal said.
Villarreal is grateful for resources like this one.
“This is a godsend. I don’t know what we would do without it,” Villarreal said.
To learn more visit Any Baby Can, click here.