SWAMPSCOTT — In an effort to provide relief to stressed parents amid the baby formula shortage, a local mom built a formula exchange website that has already connected hundreds of donors with families in dire need.
Keiko Zoll — mother, communications specialist, and activist from Swampscott, built and launched the website FreeFormulaExchange.com in a few hours on Friday, May 13, after she had learned about the baby formula shortage crisis from her mother and a podcast.
“I was so overwhelmed with emotion from deep empathy, and sadness, and rage, hearing all these stories of mothers just trying to feed their babies right now,” said Zoll.
A mother of a 9-year-old, Zoll still remembered too well how her prematurely born baby with gastrointestinal issues needed a specialty formula that was really hard to find.
“I remember how overwhelming and stressful it was, as a new mom,” said Zoll. “I was just constantly stressing about making sure my baby was fed and okay.”
Zoll felt compelled to do something, so she used her skills to build FreeFormulaExchange.com. The website is accessible nationwide and connects families who need baby formula to people who have surplus formula to donate.
This online tool is completely free to use. Each party completes a simple form that collects some basic information and is prompted to create a free account with a password.
An account allows people who need formula to access a database of all available people who have formula to donate, and vice versa. People who need formula and formula donors then connect on their own to arrange how they will exchange the formula.
“It was important to me to design a solution that removed the marketplace from the transaction,” said Zoll. “I am outraged and disgusted by reports of people price gouging cans of formula for hundreds of dollars online.”
With her messaging, Zoll encourages families to share even open containers of infant formula that their baby might have not liked.
“There are families who are willing to accept that open formula,” said Zoll. “The big key that is really different about this particular effort is that it is not putting excess demand on a limited supply right now. It is taking advantage of an existing supply that people don’t realize is out there, and that they don’t realize they can donate to other people as well.”
After launching the website, Zoll sent out 300 messages to her network asking people to spread the word. By the middle of the day Saturday, she received a few dozen requests for formula through the website and a handful of donors registered to give out what they had.
“And then by Monday –Tuesday it had just exploded,” Zoll said.
In a week, the number of baby formula requests grew to 10,000, while more than 800 donors joined the platform. Hundreds of exchanges have already happened, Zoll said.
“I have never scaled anything like that before,” said Zoll, who took most of this week off of her work at Boston Schools Fund, realizing how intensive this project had become. “I am really deeply grateful that I work for an organization that has been very understanding, and compassionate, and supportive of what I thought was going to be this really small little thing but has blown up into something huge.”
The website is receiving a hundred to two hundred visitors a minute.
“I am very lucky the site hasn’t crashed yet.” Zoll said.
Zoll has been joined by a small but mighty team of volunteer software developers and engineers across the country, who are helping her to improve the platform, make it user-friendly and make donations searchable by location.
Next, Zoll wants to make sure that the website is Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant and translate it into multiple languages.
“We know that this infant formula shortage is hitting families of color, non-native English speakers, and low income rural families particularly hard,” said Zoll.
She is also looking for more volunteers who can donate their legal advice or media and public relations services.
Zoll did have a couple of companies reach out and offer a few different ways that they can support the platform. The Typeform company has waived their fees for the web application that powers a form that visitors fill out on FreeFormulaExchange.com.
In the long run, Zoll would like to believe that there won’t be a need for her website in the future, after the supply of baby formula evens out with the demand. However, she realizes that there will always be families who experience their own crises.
“People can lose a job, a parent could pass away,” said Zoll. “What I am doing now to address a short-term problem is putting infrastructure in place to serve as a long term resource for families that need it down the line.”
Alena Kuzub can be reached at [email protected].
