Baby Formula Shortage Puts More Stress on Student Parents

It’s a text group or social media page filled with recommendations on the latest store with stocked shelves. It’s driving hour after hour, putting miles on the car and refilling the gas tank, going into store after store and coming out empty-handed. It’s sometimes going hungry.

Nicole Lynn Lewis, founder and CEO of Generation Hope.For the parents of infants in America, this is the new reality. The nation’s baby formula shortage has left families desperate for ways to feed their children, and student parents are no exception. As the federal, state and local governments look for ways to help, experts say institutions should support their parenting students through this crisis by listening to their needs and finding creative ways to share resources, particularly over the coming summer months.

“Student parents are more likely to be low income, struggling with basic needs like housing or food insecurity, and they are experiencing extreme time-poverty between working, school, and care-giving,” said Nicole Lynn Lewis, founder and CEO of Generation Hope, an organization that provides direct support for parenting students and drives systemic change.

“If you’re a parent and you have to decide between food on the table, formula or other, and education, you’ll always pick food on the table,” said Lewis. “The whole picture isn’t just that [students] can’t afford [formula], it’s that they can’t find it. It will have huge repercussions on families and getting their education.”

The shortage, brought on by pandemic related supply chain issues and the temporary closure of the Abbott formula factory in Michigan, has reduced American stock by almost 50%, according to Datasembly, a data firm. The Biden Administration and the Food and Drug Administration are adjusting to allow the import formula from other countries, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s assistance program for impoverished young families, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), is accepting more waivers on some of its more common restrictions, like brand and amount.

“We know that parenting students are more likely to be women of color, often single or head of the household,” said Ali Caccavella, senior learning specialist at The Hope Center, a research center based in Temple University that works to make higher education more effective and equitable. Caccavella co-authored a February 2022 brief on parenting in college which broke down the demographics of student parents.

“[The formula shortage] is just adding another layer of unacceptable rates of basic needs insecurity,” said Caccavella. “We see, heartbreakingly, this is more likely to impact students who are systemically marginalized.”