About damn time! A military plane delivered enough specialty infant formula that will be used for more than half a million baby bottles to Indianapolis on Sunday.
It is the first of several flights that are expected to arrive from Europe and help relieve the formula shortage the country experienced that left many parents worried.
President Joe Biden called for the use of Air Force planes to help what has been dubbed “Operation Fly Formula” because there were no commercial flights available, the New York Post reported.
The formula weighed 78,000 pounds (35,380 kilograms), White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed to reporters and arrived on Air Force One as Biden flew from South Korea to Japan.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack met the plane in Indianapolis to greet the arrival of the first shipment.
The flights are meant to provide “some incremental relief in the coming days” as the government continues to work on a better and longer-lasting response to the shortage, Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, said Sunday.
Deese told CNN’s “State of the Union” that Sunday’s flight brought in 15% of the specialty medical grade formula that was needed nationwide, and because of various actions by the government, there should be “more formula in stores starting as early as this week.”
As for a longer-term approach, he said, the US needs more formula providers “so that no individual company has this much control over supply chains.”
The Biden administration has grappled with addressing the nationwide shortage of formula, specifically the hypoallergenic varieties. The crisis comes after the closure of the nation’s largest domestic manufacturing plant in Michigan earlier this year due to safety issues.
The White House has announced that 132 pallets of Nestle Health Science Alfamino Infant and Alfamino Junior formula are scheduled to leave Ramstein Air Base in Germany for the US. Another 114 pallets of Gerber Good Start Extensive HA formula are also expected to arrive over the next few days. Altogether, about 1.5 million 8-ounce bottles of the three formulas, which are hypoallergenic for those with cow’s milk protein allergies, are expected to arrive this week.
Indianapolis was chosen as the receiver of the large delivery of formula because it is a Nestle distribution hub. The formula will be placed in FedEx semi tractor-trailers and transported to a nearby Nestle distribution center where the company will do a standard quality control check before sending out the supplies to hospitals, pharmacies, and doctor’s offices, according to an administration official on-site.
