If you’re a Kansas City mom lacking baby formula, here’s where to find some support

Help for moms

Our country faces a severe shortage of infant formula that dates to the beginning of the pandemic and was compounded Feb. 17 with a voluntary formula recall by Abbott Labs, the country’s largest manufacturer of infant formula. (May 17, 8A, “Biden offers logistics support to ease formula shortage”) With this as common knowledge, why did St. Luke’s Hospital decide to close its Heart of America Mothers’ Milk Bank earlier this year? Lack of insight? Lack of support by management? Inappropriate budget concerns?

There are options to help minimize the current problem:

▪ Women who began breastfeeding their infants after birth can attempt to relactate, easiest with the help of a certified lactation consultant.

▪ Human milk can be purchased from a human milk bank similar to the one St. Luke’s supported and operated for more than 10 years and recently closed, making this option more difficult for local women. The closest Human Milk Banking Association of North America-accredited milk banks are in Denver, Oklahoma City, Nashville, Indianapolis and Coralville, Iowa.

▪ Looking forward, pregnant women should be encouraged to consider breastfeeding their newborns if possible, since it is the preferred method of feeding by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization.

- Mary Grace Lanese, Leawood

Truth isn’t biased

Normal, rational people know that reporting the news is not biased one way or the other. Reporting what the domestic terrorist did in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday and why would not be biased. (May 17, 2A, “Police: Buffalo gunman aimed to keep killing if he got away”) Connecting him to the modern Republican Party and right-wing media would not be biased.

Enough of tiptoeing around these issues. How about asking Sen. Josh Hawley his opinion of the racist, anti-Semitic “great replacement theory” and not letting him give a flippant, nonsense answer?

America won’t survive if our media are afraid to take a stand. Reporting what is right is not biased.

- Christopher Mitchell, Kansas City

Child poverty

In 2021, the expanded federal Child Tax Credit, or CTC, helped millions of families around the country pay the bills and cut child poverty nearly in half. Sadly, the CTC monthly payments have ended, and more than 3 million children have fallen back below the poverty line.

The CTC expansion was the most significant investment in reducing child poverty in a generation. After the monthly payments started in July 2021, nearly 4 million children were kept from poverty each month. Families used their CTC payments to buy food, pay rent and cover utilities.

Missouri has taken steps to combat child poverty, but it still ranks 30th in child poverty rates. Congress has continued to reject efforts to continue the monthly CTC payments as inflation is creating greater hardship for families.

Congress must extend the expanded Child Tax Credit with permanent full refundability for all low-income families and the monthly payment option in order to lower child poverty rates in Missouri and all over the country. I call on Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley to support the reimplementation of the CTC to show support for Missourians.

- Marta Richenburg, Kansas City

In the way?

Driving south along The Paseo from 12th to 18th streets, I noticed on the west side a number of formerly elegant apartments from the previous century, along with other handsome buildings, all boarded up. The Star’s May 11 front-page story about Parade Park across the street suggests to me why developers and their political allies seem to take no helpful interest in the would-be homeowners there. (“Falling Apart; A Black-owned housing co-op made history in Kansas City. Now it faces foreclosure”)

These properties close to downtown Kansas City are prime locations for future luxury housing and entertainment venues, maybe even a baseball stadium. Why let a few poor folks get in the way?

It seems inevitable that the original dream of Parade Park has come to an end. What help can be offered to its current residents to claim a stake in their future based on the real value of the ground they live on?

- Barbara Loots, Kansas City