Storing BULK quantiites of breast milk for donation

[amyhulen]

I am working with a mom with whom I will be donating breastmilk for her little one. I already have a HUGE stockpile of Lasinoh bags that I plan to use. We are trying to figure out the most effective way to store the milk because it will be shipped from Washington to Colorado on a regular basis in a foam cooler shipping container.

You can only fit 6 oz of milk into each Lasinoh bag which adds up to 5 bags every single day. That both adds up in cost and waste which ends up in the landfill.

I am wondering if any other moms have ever pumped milk into bottles and then frozen it into containers like this http://www.amazon.com/Green-Sprouts-Eco-friendly-Silicone-Freezer/dp/B002F9MUM0/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1292111293&sr=8-7     or    

or this http://www.amazon.com/Annabel-Karmel-Food-Cube-Tray/dp/B003I868DY/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1292111683&sr=8-6 

I would then place the milk into Foodsaver brand vaccum bags to lock out any air each morning after allowing it to freeze overnight in our chest freezer. I found this information on them http://thesoftlandingbaby.com/2010/03/01/are-foodsaver-and-seal-a-meal-bags-safe/ 

It would be easier all the way around for both of us I think if the milk were sealed up in small batches which she could pull straight from the freezer in 1 oz portions. It would also be alot easier to pack square cubes into the cooler box than a bunch of semi flat bags.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience with storing and/or shipping large amounts of milk. We want to make sure it is totally safe especialy during the summer months because it will be traveling via 2 day air.

I will also be utilizing Dry Ice or reusable ice packs with each shipment.

[lunarlady]

I have frozen milk in regular ice cube trays, then stored in freezer bag.. Very handy and kept just fine. I think using food saver bags would work fine too. The only issue would be if they thawed slightly, then froze together. It would require an ice pick to get a serving! When I donated to the milk bank, we shipped in a box lined on all sides with styrofoam (like a cheep cooler), with one block of dry ice under the milk. We did overnight FedEx delivery, which actually isn't too bad if you keep the size down. I think they do a special rate for medical supply, which includes breastmilk. You might want to check and see, since it might save in the long run to ship less weight faster (less dry ice needed).