The talking points for briefing someone who is about to go into the field for the first time — what the work really is, how to show up for families, and the daily habits that keep everyone safe. Short enough to walk through at a morning meeting; solid enough to hand to a new volunteer to read.
This pairs with the morning-meeting run-through in the Field Coordinator SOP. For the mechanics of a single deployment, see Deploying as an Individual or Small Group.
1. Welcome & mission
Our mission is to help families safely feed their babies during times of hardship and instability of water and power — during and after a disaster.
You are the asset at each site. Not the kit. Your real work is to:
- Foster conversations with families and with other volunteers.
- Create connection with local organizations and agencies.
- Assemble and hand out kits as the phase of the response calls for it — these are tools that support the two points above, not the point themselves.
Kits are tools. It’s not about the kits. A kit handed over without a conversation is a missed chance to help a family feed safely. The conversation is the work.
2. The do’s
- Introduce yourself as an infant feeding emergency response specialist — not as a lactation consultant or feeding specialist. You’re here for safe feeding of every baby, however they’re fed.
- Lead with “safely fed.” Protecting breastfeeding is the default and safest option, but most families you meet won’t be exclusively breastfeeding — and those families may have fewer needs for the baby.
- Counsel on breastfeeding more deeply when it applies; otherwise, focus on helping the family feed safely with what they have.
- Where cultural or language sensitivity matters, step back and let a local volunteer of the same culture or language lead the conversation. Local to local, whenever you can.
3. The don’ts
- Don’t assume formula. Handing formula to a pregnant person with no history of breastfeeding difficulty can undercut breastfeeding they were planning to do. Don’t default to it — ask, listen, and support the family’s actual plan.
- Don’t meet a family and forget them. Follow through to completion, or hand the case off to the Field or Digital Coordinator. Follow families closely for postpartum support and needs.
- Don’t bring judgment. We are not the formula police — and we’re not formula fairies either. Ideally, every family that leaves with formula also gets a kit. Nobody should be made to feel bad; families are doing the best they can with what they know.
- Don’t just drop off kits. Parents don’t read handouts without a conversation, and they often don’t know what they do or don’t need. The handoff only works if you talk it through.
4. What to expect in the field
- Use the Rapid Needs Assessment as your guide. Dig deeper than the first answer — conversations often reveal the real needs. (See the RNA.)
- Go nowhere alone. Travel with at least one other team member — ideally an experienced one. (A family member tagging along doesn’t count as your teammate.)
- Don’t bring extra supplies of any kind unless you already arrived with them.
- Every premade kit must be checked and signed off by your Kit/Supply Supervisor before it goes out. Needs change often, so never dispense a kit that hasn’t been through that check.
- Share your team’s contact cards so families and sites can reach you.
- Expect to feel overwhelmed. This is profoundly challenging, eye-opening work — for visiting volunteers, and even more so for local community members. Look after yourself and your teammates. (See Trauma-Informed Response.)
- Be flexible. Needs and priorities can change at any moment.
5. Daily tasks in the field
- Check in and out at every site using your team’s check-in form, every single time you arrive or leave. This is how the team tracks volunteers for safety.
- Submit a site report from the same form. These are critical to understanding each location — include site details, contact names and numbers, whether formula is kept somewhere temperature-controlled, and what needs exist.
- Log urgent needs through the same form, with the same level of detail, so the team can track and meet them quickly.
- Watch for informal, unregulated milk sharing. Note it discreetly and document what you find, so coordinators can follow up safely.
- Feed and hydrate yourself. Stay well and strong for the work — your self-care matters too.
- Talk about water safety. Many areas may have no safe drinking water, and some households on wells don’t realize the well needs to be disinfected before the water is safe. Weave water safety into your conversations and show how the kit helps reduce waterborne illness.
- Carry a small formula stash if you may encounter families — a little basic formula for high-risk moments where transfer is poor and donor milk isn’t available.
6. A word about attitude
Your attitude is the most important thing you bring. This is often dirty, thankless work, and many volunteers won’t get to work directly with families. Complaining — especially in front of local volunteers who have lost everything — lands hard. And if you come across a lot of formula, or expired formula, quietly offer to help pull it rather than making a point of it; anything else reads as judgment, and people are doing their very best.