Community Grants

In 2025, the Human Milk Institute started to provide Community Grants, supporting opportunities for community-driven breastfeeding and lactation projects.

The initiative is a collaboration between HMI and the Center for Community Health at UC San Diego in partnership with the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative (COI).

The following three projects were funded with a total of $30,000 - made possible by an award from Kaiser Premanante:

Around Birth Collective

Project:  Tender Loving Care: Expanding Family-Centered Perinatal Support
Funding Awarded:  $10,000 (Kaiser Permanante Award)

Community grant funds expand Tender Loving Care’s Perinatal Community Health Worker walk-in clinic to San Diego, creating a trusted, culturally aligned wellness hub for pregnant and postpartum families. Through monthly clinic days co-located within a ethnic community-based organization, families will receive integrated lactation care from IBCLCs, food access supports, and stress-reducing wellness activities. Perinatal community health workers facilitate ongoing support and evaluation, connecting an estimated families to coordinated services that improve food security, reduce stress, and strengthen breastfeeding outcomes.

Learn more about Around Birth Collective

San Diego Lactation Equity Alliance

Project:  Community Infant Safe Feeding Spaces
Funding Awarded:  $10,000 (Kaiser Permanente Award)

The Community Infant Safe Feeding Spaces project brings culturally congruent lactation care directly into community settings through pop-up safe feeding spaces at public events. Families can breastfeed, pump, or bottle-feed without stigma while accessing free or low-cost mini lactation consultations and infant feeding supplies. By centering Black and Brown IBCLCs and culturally competent providers, the project hopes to increases breastfeeding continuation and parental confidence, and reduces barriers related to cost, access, and public stigma-building long-term community trust across San Diego County.

Learn more about San Diego Lactation Equity Alliance

Global Communities

Project:  Lactation Equity Program
Funding Awarded:  $10,000 (Kaiser Permanante Award)

The Global Communities Lactation Equity Program strengthens their Healthy Start program's access to culturally and linguistically responsive lactation care in areas with limited services by expanding workforce capacity and community-based supports. The project trains, coaches, and mentors Lactation Educators from underrepresented communities; hosts weekly new-parent groups; and deploys pop-up Lactation Lounges at community events. Families also benefit from expanded access to a multilingual Breastfeeding Warmline, offered in collaboration with the San Diego County Breastfeeding Coalition that provides ongoing support. Together, these efforts create a coordinated, sustainable network that advances long-term lactation equity.

Learn more about Global Communities Healthy Start