An owner of a restaurant in Texas and a father of three came to the rescue of hundreds of parents currently in a struggle to find baby formula due to a national shortage.
Benji Arslanovski owns the Our Place in Mansfield and recently contacted his supplier, US Foods, which provides formulas to hospitals and health care providers.
He thought that maybe no one looked in that direction and it turned out that they didn’t.
Owner of Restaurant in Texas Comes to the Rescue & Donates Baby Formula
Arslanovski later found 56 cases of baby formula by Gerber in stock at US Foods. He checked with the company to make sure that other health care centers and retailers weren’t looking for the supply.
He didn’t want a health care place to suffer.
Once this was confirmed, he purchased all of it, day by day, and began giving it to parents in need free of charge. The first six packs went fast.
Unfortunately, parents throughout the country had to scour stores but found only empty shelves after the biggest plant in the US that makes baby formula closed down in February due to concerns about contamination.
The maker of formula Abbott Nutrition also recalled several lots of their most popular brands of formula.
Consequently, baby formula supplies have started to decline. Abbott has since made a deal with the White House and they’ll reopen within two weeks, with the approval still pending from the FDA.
However, the production may take months to restart so that sufficient amounts of formula ends on store shelves and meets the needs of all families with babies.
No Baby Deserves to Be Left without Formula
Arslanovski shared with the public that he has formula cans available in his restaurant on his restaurant’s official Facebook page.
Parents responded immediately and Arslanovski explained that people don’t need to eat at his restaurant or buy something, they can just come by if they need formula since no baby deserves to be without it.
At the start of this mission, Arslanovski considered charging parents and caregivers the amount he paid for the formula; however, in the end, he decided to donate it.
The moms who found formula were so happy and he couldn’t charge them.
In a period of one week, Arslanovski, within a week, donated more than 300 formula cans that are worth around $4000.
He’s also planning to keep buying formula as long as it can be stocked by his distributor.
Sources: