Milk Depot Opens at CentraCare – Long Prairie

CentraCare – Long Prairie has opened a milk depot in partnership with the CentraCare – Long Prairie Foundation Greatest Needs Fund, funding the purchase of the freezer, and the Minnesota Milk Bank for Babies, the only organization in Minnesota that processes and distributes human donor milk. The goal is to ensure that medically vulnerable babies in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest have access to safely pasteurized human donor milk when a mother’s own milk is unavailable or in low supply.

A milk depot is a place where women can bring extra milk to donate to other babies. The milk is then transported to the milk bank where it is pasteurized, tested for bacteria, frozen, stored and shipped to health care facilities in need.

Before milk is accepted, every donating mother is carefully screened by a phone interview, written application and blood test.

To become a milk donor, contact the Minnesota Milk Bank for Babies at 763-546-8051. After passing the screening process, make an appointment to drop off your donations at CentraCare – Long Prairie by calling (320) 732-7290

Pictured: Certified Nurse Midwife, Ceree George, places a pin point on the Minnesota Milk Bank Map, adding the newly established Long Prairie location.