Northhampton News

Gov. Tom Wolf and First Lady Frances Wolf recently announced a $1.75 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant for ByHeart that allows the organization to become the fifth infant formula manufacturer in the country.

The grant is being used to complete a canning line and dry blend area at a new facility in Reading, a recent press release from the governor’s office said. It will also create 50 new jobs. The grant makes Pennsylvania the first state in the U.S. to invest in solving the formula shortage issues. 

Mia Funt, ByHeart co-founder and president, said that when ByHeart was founded they made a commitment to own and oversee their supply chain by acquiring manufacturing and sourcing all the ingredients, while conducting the largest clinical trial in more than 25 years.

“We knew we had to do the hard work to deliver the most wholesome and nutritious alternative to breast milk – with cleanest ingredients – so parents could feel confident about how they feed,” Funt said. “What we didn’t know at the time was how valuable this approach would become in having levers in our control to show up for parents in this shortage crisis, and we appreciate all support and investment from the Commonwealth towards ByHeart’s continuing efforts to fortify infant nutrition’s critical infrastructure.”

Sen. Judy Schwank said that the infant formula shortage has affected parents everywhere, and that includes Pennsylvania.

“Pennsylvania’s rich food production industries place us in a position to help ease the burden people are feeling and increase the supply of a product that is crucial to the health and wellbeing of babies,” she said in the release. “ByHeart is a company that saw all of the positives the commonwealth had to offer and made a big investment here in Pennsylvania that will benefit our economy while helping to ease the shortage nationwide.”

Wolf noted that the infant formula crisis has caused pain for families statewide, adding that the shortage is partly due to only a few manufacturers dominating the market nationwide.

“I’m honored to have had the opportunity to invest in a solution and that ByHeart chose Pennsylvania as home,” he said in the release. “They’re simultaneously feeding families and feeding our local economy.”

Isabella Torres is a mother of a three-month-old baby in Reading and expressed the difficulty she and other mothers have had feeding their children, often having to cross state borders or post for help on social media.

“While I am still worried, I am also grateful and hopeful,” she said in the release. “Hopeful that investments in facilities like ByHeart will increase baby formula production so that parents like me don’t need to worry any longer.”