— PRESS RELEASE —
A new foundation is making human milk more accessible for California babies in need.
Sacramento’s Human Milk Connection Foundation launches campaign to educate on the importance of human milk for newborns and infants; raising funds to improve access and equity for California families and reduce the high cost of donor human milk.
November 15, 2022 | Sacramento, CA Human milk is the gold standard for healthy babies — it provides the optimal nutrition for development and greatly reduces the risk of many common, serious diseases. Yet many California babies do not have access to human milk for a variety of reasons. Up to 60% of parents are not able to feed breast milk as long as they would like. During the recent baby formula shortage many parents and caretakers looked to human milk banks for donor human milk as an option, only to find the cost prohibitive — over $250 a week.
The Human Milk Connection, a new 501c3 foundation, is embarking on a new program to provide California families access to Pasteurized Donor Human Milk (PDHM) to meet the nutritional needs of their children, regardless of familial background, circumstances, or socio-economic status. By raising funds through individual and corporate donations, Human Milk Connection will provide grants directly to providers, such as the Mothers’ Milk Bank of San Jose, to offset the cost to those in need, using a sliding scale based on family income.
Tax-deductible donations can be made directly to the Foundation online at HumanMilkConnection.org/donate-now, or through a GoFundMe campaign. The foundation is also seeking corporate sponsorships with local, regional, and statewide companies.
Leading an all-volunteer board of directors are co-founders Janel Silva, a Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and Dr. Debbie Albert, IBCLC, a Nurse Lactation Consultant, and President of the Sacramento Breastfeeding Coalition. The board also includes Dr. Julia Gabhart, pediatrician and IBCLC; Dr. Diana White, PhD, LMFT, LPCC; and Don Button, professor of Design & Digital Media at Sacramento City College.
For more information about the Human Milk Connection, see the
Who We Are page. Learn why human milk is the best nutrition for babies, see Why Human Milk?
“Mothers’ Milk Bank is excited about our partnership with Human Milk Connection. … This partnership will support a program to make donor milk more affordable to qualifying families and increase accessibility to more babies. We thank Human Milk Connection for their vision of supporting Mothers’ Milk Bank in saving lives.”
— Jonathan Bautista
Mothers’ Milk Bank of San Jose
“When we adopted our daughter at birth, I was concerned that formula was less healthy than breast milk, but donor milk was never mentioned by our doctors as an option. Increasing the availability and affordability of safe donated milk will provide adoptive families with great healthy and practical feeding choice.”
—Leslie H.
MEDIA CONTACT: Janel Silva at 415-297-8430 or use this email form