BABY BOXES: The city is launching a goody-bag program to provide new parents supplies for newborns when they leave the hospital. Known as “baby boxes,” the resources, including diapers, clothing and supplies for eating and bathing, will be available to all families giving birth at four public hospitals beginning later this year, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Thursday. First unveiled in Adams’ State of the City address earlier this year, the program will be paid for by an initial tranche of $2.6 million. The boxes will be available at Jacobi and Lincoln hospitals in the Bronx, Elmhurst hospital in Queens and Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn.
PRICE GOUGING: Families in the Bronx will receive $344,000 worth of baby formula as part of a settlement related to price gouging during a national shortage in 2022. The state attorney general’s office reached a settlement with Marine Park Distribution Inc. for illegally raising prices during the shortage in violation of state price gouging laws, in some cases charge double what the formula cost before the shortage. The formula will be distributed by local nonprofit Roads to Success, according to the attorney general’s office.
