San Jose Mothers Milk Bank

Programs: The organization collects excess breast milk from volunteer breastfeeding mothers, stores the breast milk for optimal nutritional value, processes the breast milk to remove viruses and bacteria that may cause illness and distributes the human donor milk to hospitals and families. As a charter member of the human milk banking association of north america (hmbana), the organization's standards of processing donated breast milk are the basis of operation for all milk banking organizations. Mothers' milk bank is licensed as a tissue bank in california and maryland and registered with the fda. During 2017, the organization provided processed breast milk to 114 hospitals and distributed over 522,000 ounces of breast milk to infants and children. San jose mothers milk bank's major goal in 2017 was to emphasize service to the families that are underserved. Typically, the majority of the population of the national intensive care unit (nicu) are infants of color. As a community based organization, mothers milk bank expanded their services to promote breastfeeding in communities of color and milk donation by increasing the number of milk drives throughout california and nevada. The organization also took great strides in reaching out to the professionals by training and speaking on the benefits of donor human milk. Medi-cal breast pump services were expanded to santa clara, san francisco and san mateo counties; no other services are available to mothers such as this service. Due to the increasing demand for human milk and ancillary services, the organization moved to a new leased property at 1887 monterey rd, suite 110, san jose, ca 95112 in june, 2016. The new space is five times the size of the original operating space. By 2025, all california hospitals must be designated "baby friendly or assume similar guidelines, requiring all infants to have access to their mother's own milk or donor milk. Our new space provides us with the capability to serve this growing demand.

the organization provides a breast pump rental/sales and supplies program. In 2017, medi-cal breast pump services were provided to santa clara, san francisco and san mateo counties; no other services are available to mothers such as this service. Approximately 200 persons were served during the year.