New York-area moms, businesses and Israeli citizens are banding together to get breast milk from the United States to Israel.
The death toll in Israel surpassed 1,300 as of Friday, with scores of women killed or kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.
More than 3,000 ounces of frozen breast milk were packed onto a Tel Aviv-bound El Al flight which left JFK Airport early Friday, according to Rachel Benador of Chelsea, a Jewish woman who spearheaded the donation effort.
Rachael Wesley, 32, of the Upper East Side contributed 150 ounces of breast milk she had stashed away in the freezer after her toddler stopped nursing.
“I really felt like it was the least I could do to help babies and children and mothers in Israel, a place I’m so connected to as an American Jew. . . . We need to do everything we can to help each other right now,” she said.
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NoMad mom Lauren Leibson Elkisch, 38, saw an Instagram post about Milk for Israel — a donation effort in partnership with Houston-based, freeze-dried breast milk company, Milkify — just as she was about to stop pumping for her own 9-month-old son.
“Obviously I can give money, which I did, but I said, ‘What can I do that the person next to me can’t? What do they really, really need? I said, ‘How many people out there can actually give milk?'” Elkisch said.
Elkisch is sending 100 ounces of frozen breast milk to Milkify, which is working with flight attendants to get the precious substance overseas in their carry-ons.
Most of the women who want to donate are in the tri-state area, said Milkify co-founder Pedro Silva. The company is shipping the donation materials to the women at cost.
Private donations are the only way to help, since official breast-feeding organizations will only distribute milk that is vetted from women who undergo rigorous health screenings.
