First, having spent a long time working in international nutrition, I know people can be grateful when they believe something has an immediate impact.  Sometimes it is much harder to look at something that may initially seem to have a positive impact, but may not be helpful in the longterm or may even be harmful in the longterm.  I'm sure in emergency conditions mothers may initially think that the powdered formula they are given is a blessing -- and then in the longer term suffer from the consequences of that.  While shipping milk across continents may have subtle consequences that are not as immediately apparent.  The harm might be of an economic, ecologic, and ethical nature.  I think of how I once had an offer for almost, but not quite expired iron supplements.  In theory a good donation to a country plagued by iron deficiency anemia among pregnant women.  The shipping costs, however, turned out to be astronomical --far greater than buying iron supplements on the open market that were not about to expire.  The money spent on shipping those tablets would have diverted money that was better served developing a campaign to improve women's access to locally available iron-rich foods by reaching out to their husbands with marketing.  That campaign worked better than a one time donation of supplements. 

So, I have a few questions for Linda:

What proportion of the milk donated to the IMBP is used for profit and what proportion is donated to Africa?
How much does it cost to ship donor milk to Africa on a per ounce basis?
Who is covering the costs of the shipment?
How much does it cost to collect and process donor milk in place?
What proportion of the resources donated to IMBP are used to develop sustainable local milk banks compared to the resources used to collect and ship milk to Africa?
What proportion of the marketing resources are used to attract donors from the United States?
What proportion of the marketing resources are used to attract donors locally?
How much profit is made from the donated milk that doesn't go to Africa?

Do you have a financial report that you could provide?

Best regards, Susan Burger

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