Thousands of families get free baby formula in settlement, but price is still high
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POMONOK, Queens — It’s an item that many infants, as well as some children with special needs, must have to stay healthy, and in some cases survive.
Infant formula can be expensive, but it’s not nearly as pricey as it had been two years ago when quality and supply chain issues reduced inventories of the vital item.
One retailer, Walgreens, settled a case with New York Attorney General Letitia James that it was price-gouging. On Tuesday, thousands of families got the benefit of that settlement, with containers of free formula.
Still, the situation showed that infant formula is still challenging to afford, for many people who need it. At noon on Tuesday, James was joined by David Greenfield, the CEO of the Met Council charities, at a Met Council center to pack up some of the results of the infant formula settlement for distribution.
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More specifically, James, Greenfield, and some other community leaders led groups of volunteers in packing more than 4,600 individual infant formula canisters into care packages for families in need. In addition to the formula canisters, each package had diapers and baby clothes.
The formula was provided by Walgreens as part of a legal settlement. The company, the second largest drugstore chain in the world, had to pay a $50,000 fine and provide more than 9,000 canisters of formula to the state.
Tuesday’s distribution, led by James, and administered by Met Council, was half of the turned-over supply. The other half was distributed to western New York families in Buffalo last month.
Maribel Beltré, a mother and an aunt who lives in Queens, said that she understands how challenging it can be to get formula affordably. She said that two years ago, when prices were their highest, her niece got in touch with her, unable to find any formula at all – let alone some that she could afford.
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“She’s [was] so worrying about that she don’t find formula, and she called me and try to see if you can find some can there,” Beltré said.
At the time, formula prices were at about $40 per container, on average.
Some canisters, James said at the event, “[were] being sold for $129.”
Price hikes of that nature led to her office pursuing their legal action, as well as the free containers of formula that came along with it, as Greenfield pointed out.
“[It’s] going to help the very same people that were impacted in the first place,” he said about the giveaway of the free containers of formula,”which are lower-income New Yorkers.”
Still, while about 4,600 families received a free container each, many thousands more have to buy formula. Its price has declined since the price gouging of two years ago, but for many families, paying full price is still a challenge. PIX11 News found that among major brands, the average cost for a 28-ounce container is about $32.
Beltré, the mother whose niece had asked her to help her find formula when it had been scarce, said that paying the prices at which formula is pegged now can be daunting.
“For a single mother, that’s so difficult,” said the single mother of two, whose children are now young adults. She added that prices can fluctuate, which adds to the stress. “Everything goes up in price, you know?”
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