The Invisible Infrastructure: Securing 'First Food' in the Wake of Hurricane Helene

When Hurricane Helene decimated infrastructure across the Southeast United States, thousands of families with infants faced a silent, life-threatening crisis: the collapse of 'First Food' security. Traditional emergency logistics often overlook the specific clinical and nutritional needs of infants and young children, resulting in the dangerous distribution of unsolicited formula and a lack of safe spaces for lactating parents.
This session details the operational response of the SAFE (Support and Advocacy for Safe Feeding in Emergencies) Team during the Helene response and recovery. By integrating the International Operational Guidance on Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies (IYCF-E) and CDC guidelines into local emergency management frameworks, the SAFE Team moved beyond 'supply-drop' logistics to create a clinical support backbone mobilizing hundreds of infant feeding specialists from around the country.
Participants will explore how to bridge the gap between public health infant feeding expertise and emergency management logistics. We will provide a scalable blueprint for managers to integrate IYCF-E into their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), ensuring that the most vulnerable-our infants-are not an afterthought in future climate-driven disasters.