We All We Got: Breakfast for Champions returns August 19

Black mothers fight daily for breastfeeding support that should already be there, not just in August. Nationally, Black mothers initiate breastfeeding at 74.5 percent, compared to 85.9 percent of white mothers (CDC, 2021). That gap is not about choice. It is about access to culturally competent lactation care, workplace policies that do not bend for Black women, and a healthcare system that was not built with Black mothers in mind. Right here in Essex County, only 26 percent of mothers exclusively breastfed during their birth hospitalization, the lowest rate of any county in New Jersey. Black infants in New Jersey die at nearly three times the rate of white infants. Closing the breastfeeding gap could cut Black infant mortality by as much as half, according to widely cited CDC estimates.

August is World Breastfeeding Month, and Breakfast for Champions is where the Perinatal Health Equity Initiative gathers to meet that fight head-on. Join us on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. as we kick off our observance of Black Breastfeeding Week, August 25 to 31, under this year’s theme, “We All We Got.”

This year’s breakfast holds New Jersey to its own promises. In 2019, the state passed laws expanding Medicaid coverage for lactation support and for donor human milk for babies born too soon. Six years later, the promise is still catching up to the law. The regulations needed to make donor milk accessible were not issued until 2025. The credentialing system that would let lactation providers actually bill Medicaid for their services, promised by 2024, still is not working, so coverage on paper is not yet care a mother can use. We will share where implementation stands, hear directly from mothers still living the gap, and write letters together that hold New Jersey accountable. Keynote speaker Clifton Kenon Jr. joins us to talk about building breastfeeding equity into every system meant to serve Black families. We will also present the Liquid Gold Award to this year’s honoree, announced soon, someone who has gone above and beyond for lactation support in our community.

Our goal is $35,000. A full lactation visit costs $250, more than many mothers can pay, which is why PHEI offers every visit on a sliding scale, sometimes at no cost at all. Your gift closes that gap.

$25 helps get a mother started
$100 gets her most of the way there
$250 covers her visit in full

Everything beyond that keeps our policy fight funded: the letters, the testimony, the pressure that makes New Jersey answer for a credentialing system it promised in 2024 and still hasn’t delivered. That is not just a number. It is home visits, consultations, and a policy fight New Jersey cannot keep ignoring.

Buy your seat. Bring a mother who needs this room. Or give what you can. Every gift moves us closer to $35,000, and closer to a New Jersey where breastfeeding support is not a fight Black mothers have to win alone.

We all we got. Build with us.

Breakfast for Champions 2026

We all we got! Moving policy to implementation