by Alexandra Moyen
JAMAICA — To Leoniza Nazareno, a new Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens initiative to provide weekly breastfeeding support and resources for mothers in Queens is an important step toward helping an underserved community.
“I struggled with breastfeeding, especially with my firstborn, and at the time, I was looking for support, and I couldn’t find it anywhere in the community,” said Nazareno, director of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens WIC Program. “If I’m lucky enough to be able to provide that kind of support in the community, that’s what I’m going to do.”
On Aug. 4, Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens and Northwell Health Long Island Jewish Forest Hills celebrated the grand opening of their Baby Café in Jamaica.
For mothers, the space combines peer support with guidance from a Northwell Health board-certified lactation consultant who can help with pumping, weaning, returning to work, and write referrals to other Catholic Charities programs.
The Baby Café, which is free, offers weekly sessions every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to noon. Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens opened a second Baby Café in Woodside on Aug. 5, which is open the same hours as the other on Wednesdays and Fridays.
“Here in Jamaica, it’s an underserved community,” Nazareno said. “So that’s why we wanted to get more programs here, and at the same time in Woodside as well.”
A 2025 report from the New York State Department of Health found that disparities in breastfeeding exist across the state, noting that “[non-Hispanic] black women have the lowest prevalence of breastfeeding.”
In addition to disparities by race/ethnicity, breastfeeding measures also differ in New York by socioeconomic status, insurance type, where someone lives, and birth hospital, among other factors, the report states.
Lorraine Chambers Lewis, president of Northwell Health Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, said the program addresses a need close to her heart.
“When you talk about certain ZIP codes that have shorter lifespans, it’s doing programs like this, just having healthcare close to home,” Lewis said. “That makes it really important for people to be able to have longer lives, and it starts at birth.”
Before the ribbon-cutting, the cafe was awarded two citations from the offices of New York State Senator Leroy Comrie and Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman.
As Jeysel Sanchez rocked her baby, Madison Plata, to sleep, she reflected on the time she brought her child to the Catholic Charities Jamaica and Queens WIC office before the grand opening, when her child was just three weeks old.
“With their help, it makes me feel like a better mom,” Sanchez said. “Because with my first baby, I couldn’t breastfeed, and now I can with my second one.”