ORANGE PARK – Six blocky frozen bags of breastmilk are placed on a table in front of Allison Borszich while she bounces her six-month-old son Andrew on her hip. The bags are all hers, and they’re going to help babies in need across the country.

As the first donor to the recently-opened Milk Donation Center at the Orange Park Medical Center, Borszich quickly points out she wanted to help mothers who couldn’t produce enough milk.

“It was just the right thing to do, I couldn’t think of a better way to help somebody,” Borszich said.

Andrew was born July 2016 and Borszich began producing more breast milk than she needed.

“My freezer was overflowing with breastmilk,” Borszich said.

When Borszich reached out on social media, a friend recommended Orange Park Medical Center. She donated on Dec. 7, the first day the breastmilk donation center – and the first in the Jacksonville area – opened.

An Atlantic Beach resident, Borszich commutes 45 minutes to donate. Her first donation was 29 bags of breastmilk. She’s donated 36 bags since December.

Lactation Specialist Donna Mason assists Borszich. Mason said the hospital receives a lot of calls from mother’s worried about their milk supply. She said moms such as Borszich who have the extra breastmilk, have the ability and a huge opportunity to help babies in need.

“It’s a fabulous gift. It’s a very exciting and heady feeling to be the vessel that connects the moms to the milk bank,” Mason said.

OMPC ships the milk to Colorado-based Mother’s Milk Bank, a nonprofit program. Then it’s pasteurized and distributed to the neediest babies in the country.

The screening involves a 10-minute phone call regarding the potential donor’s general medical history. Then the milk bank pays for a blood screening.

So far, two mothers have donated but OMPC received 15 calls from mothers interested in the donation center after a radio story ran on a local news station.

OMPC currently doesn’t use donor milk, but Suzanne Jones, director of Women and Children’s Services, said OMPC is getting there.

“One of the goals for hospitals in the HCA South Atlantic division hospitals was to open a breast milk donation center,” Jones said. “If you’re already involved in the process of using milk, it’s easier to get involved and use the donor milk in your own NICU.”

Jones said she’s hoping that OMPC can use locally-donated breastmilk by the end of year.

But to Borszich, her numerous donations represented one less thing families and their babies had to worry about.

“If I can just relieve the stress for these women, I feel like that’s a job well done,” Borszich said.