A Mother's Memory - New York Times

Q. My late mother, who grew up in Yorkville, told me that as a little girl she would take the subway "all the way downtown" to get breast milk for her twin baby brothers. She remembered that the milk was free, and that it came from contributing mothers who were also poor. Is there a record of this?

A. Yes. The organization was called the Mother's Milk Bureau. It was founded in 1921 and run until about 1950 by the Children's Welfare Federation, a consortium of service groups. It provided nourishment for premature and sick babies whose mothers could not nurse them adequately. The New York Times reported in 1938 that the bureau's central station was at 34th Street and Ninth Avenue, and that in 1937 it distributed more than 5,000 quarts of milk to 600 babies.



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