GSA Blog

GSA Assists with Critical Transportation of Infant Formula in Partnership with HHS and Other Federal Agencies

Over the past several months, the Biden-Harris Administration has mobilized to get infant formula back on shelves and address the underlying issues that have contributed to the infant formula shortage.

As part of that effort, President Biden announced Operation Fly Formula, a joint effort to speed up the import of infant formula and start getting more formula to stores as soon as possible. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the Department of Defense (DOD) are partnering to pick up overseas infant formula that meets U.S. health and safety standards, so it can get to store shelves faster.

Currently, GSA’s Office of Travel, Transportation, and Logistics is arranging transportation services for eight international “airport-to-door” air and ground planned deliveries. The formula then goes to distribution warehouses.

Six flights delivered a combined 981,000 pounds of infant formula to Texas, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. Two more flights in early July are planned to deliver a combined 393,000 pounds of formula to Pa. This particular endeavor is ongoing, and we look forward to fulfilling more requests until the need is met.

The mission is an example of how GSA’s Freight team provides trusted solutions to federal agencies during steady-state or declared emergencies.

Over the past two years, the Freight team provided assisted acquisition services to the HHS Office of the Secretary, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Office of Resource Management, COVID-19 Testing and Diagnostics Working Group.

By using the GSA solution, HHS supplied COVID tests to facilities across the U.S. The air-bridge mission provided warehouse and storage for more than 160 million test kits throughout the country.

If your agency needs assistance with transportation and logistics, visit GSA's Transportation Programs website for more information.