Shelter & Congregate Area Resources

For emergency managers and planners

Most of what makes a shelter work for a baby is decided before anyone opens a door, by someone who is not in the room.

Plan for both kinds of sheltering. In a real event families end up in official, organization run shelters and in grassroots or faith based refuge points, churches and community centers that opened because people arrived. The official networks bring structured logistics. The community sites bring immediate, local care. Families with babies use both. Federal Temporary Shelter Assistance may also place families in hotels, which recreates the same problems inside a room with no kitchen.

Four things to settle in advance. Who is named as the lead for infant feeding. Where a family feeds behind a door that closes. How a per infant feeding question gets onto the registration form. And where hot water comes from.

Hot water is two problems, not one. Formula has to be prepared with clean water heated to at least 158°F (70°C), and the feeding items have to be washed afterward. The steps for preparing powdered formula safely set out what that actually takes. Kitchens are usually closed to residents and the liability reason is real: slips, falls, equipment and food safety. Look for a staff break room with hot water and a sink. Where there is no plumbing to borrow, a mobile sink of the kind sold for camping, with hot water from a propane source, is inexpensive and can be staged in advance.

A parent who is pumping also needs somewhere cold and clean to store milk, and a plan for what happens when the power goes.

The same considerations apply at reception centers, mass feeding locations, disaster recovery centers and multi agency recovery centers. Congregate shelter supplies for infant feeding are reimbursable under Public Assistance Category B when a declaration specifies it. See Emergency Management and Preparedness Coordinators.