The first-ever mobile formula bank launched in Pennsylvania last week, offering free formula to families who would otherwise struggle to afford it.
The “Babies in the Burgh Mobile Unit” is operated by Beverly’s PGH. Executive Director Megs Yunn told CBS News that it is designed to meet families in need, offering a staple item that isn’t often carried at traditional food banks.
“When 75% of all babies in the U.S. rely on some type of formula by the age of six months and formula is a product that is not traditionally sourced at food banks, there needs to be a resource that is a bridge,” Yunn explained.
In addition to the formula, the mobile unit will offer a number of other supplies, including baby items, lactation support, and connections to area resources.
The mobile formula truck is an expansion of seven brick-and-mortar formula banks that Beverly’s opened starting in 2022. The organization also throws baby showers for expecting families. Since 2022, the organization has fed more than 3,000 babies and their families.
Yunn founded her organization under the name “Beverly’s Birthdays” after she struggled to find a special formula for her own child. “We want to be a voice for those who might not have a voice, and those are tiny little babies and their moms and dads,” she said in a previous interview.
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“When you can’t feed your baby, and you live in the U.S., something is wrong,” explained Darla Sherlock, who works alongside Yunn. “A lot of the times, grocery stores that are in more affluent neighborhoods are more stocked with formula. When you go into other neighborhoods where there are smaller grocery stores, they are not as well stocked.”
The duo shops from wholesalers in order to ensure that families in lower-income areas don’t struggle to feed their children.
“We also go to grocery stores ourselves, and we purchase formula at full retail price,” Sherlock said. “But we also make sure when we are purchasing formula, we are not wiping shelves, we are leaving things behind, and we take it from affluent neighborhoods and bring it into neighborhoods where there might not be as many grocery stores and families are on a bus line.”
The mobile truck will travel to areas around the metropolitan Pittsburgh area that are considered transportation and food deserts, including Greene, Fayette, and Washington counties and Pittsburgh neighborhoods like Northview Heights. It currently has 17 stops planned; the schedule of locations can be found here.
