San Jose woman reflects on career leading nation’s first nonprofit milk bank

At her home in San Jose, 91-year-old Terry Asquith looks back at how she’s given the gift of life to at-risk babies. 50 years ago, she founded the nation’s oldest nonprofit milk bank, Mothers’ Milk Bank.

“I really think I’m proud of myself, how many thousands of babies have been helped,” she said.

In 1974, Asquith was a transplant technician at the Institute for Medical Research at Valley Medical Center when a Los Gatos pediatrician called, needing human milk for a critically-ill baby boy. She asked around for help.

“The next morning there was a big article, and that afternoon we had 30 women in line at the Institute donating their milk,” Asquith said. “Wonderful, because, amazing, the amount of people that helped.”

So she started Mothers’ Milk Bank in a trailer at Valley Medical Center in San Jose. Volunteers donated milk that was then tested and pasteurized.

“I remember Terry being so sure to tell us about every little drop is so important,” said Laura Maxson, a three-time donor in the 1970s.

Now a licensed midwife, she remembers Asquith always found a way to ensure that the babies got life-saving milk.

“She was going to do it. If that didn’t work, we were gonna do it this way. If that didn’t work, we were going to do it that way. And how would you like to help,” Maxson recalled.

In fact, in the milk bank’s early years, Asquith recalls a KPIX reporter making a special delivery for an infant whose mother was killed.

“They needed milk and we had no way to send it. So Barbara Rodgers said, ‘I’ll take it.’ And the helicopter from Channel 5 took milk to Modesto,” Asquith said.

Today, Mothers’ Milk Bank operates from its own building on Monterey Road. It gets donations from nine collection sites in three states, and works with 120 partner hospitals nationwide.

Last year, the bank shipped out 1.2 million pounds of human milk to California, Maryland, Idaho and Hawaii.

Asquith is proud that nutrient-rich donations have protected babies from infection and necrotizing enterocolitis — a life-threatening intestinal inflammation. Now retired, Terry is touched hearing heartfelt stories from moms like this one she came across.

“She said, ‘You won’t remember me but my son, Michael, got milk from the milk bank and he is now an attorney in San Francisco.’ And she had tears rolling down her eyes,” Asquith said. “That was incredibly fulfilling. Incredible.”

So for starting Mothers’ Milk Bank to help at-risk babies thrive, this week’s Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Terry Asquith.     

Mothers’ Milk Bank is always seeking more donations. If you can help, more information can be found here. 

Sharon Chin

Sharon Chin is a general assignment reporter who also profiles Jefferson Award winners for KPIX 5 Eyewitness News. Since she joined KPIX 5 in 1997, Chin has reported everything from fires to features, from politics to perspective pieces, but she feels a special sense of pride bringing viewers the stories of Jefferson Award winners. She herself feels inspired as she shares the stories of our community’s heroes.