First Lady Jill Biden staged a media photo-op with pallets of baby formula on Wednesday, as store shelves remain empty.
“I’ve always said that food is love, but food is life too,” the First Lady said, appearing with the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy.
The formula was flown by the Department of Defense from Ramstein Air Base in Germany to the Dulles airport near Washington, DC, in the United States.
Biden said that “as a mom and a nana,” she understood what mothers and families were going through during the shortage.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and First Lady Jill Biden arrive to speak as a FedEx cargo plane delivers baby formula at Dulles International Airport on May 25, 2022, in Dulles, Virginia. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“I am here today to say to parents: You aren’t alone,” she said. “At the highest levels of Joe’s administration, he and his team understand what you are going through.”
The White House said that the delivery was 100,000 pounds, which is only a small portion of what families in the United States use every day.
The Biden White House has struggled to handle the crisis, as administration officials were slow to react to the obvious shortages.
Biden himself finally addressed the crisis last week, announcing his decision to invoke the Defense Production Act to try and speed up deliveries of formula. He also announced his decision to launch “Operation Fly Formula” to import baby formula from other countries to help address shortages.