NJ Nonprofit Uplifts Families Grieving An Infant’s Loss, Fighting NICU Battles

MONTCLAIR, NJ — A New Jersey nonprofit that supports families with an infant in the hospital – or who have lost a young family member – will launch its first official NICU donation drive in Montclair.

The Mia Joy Foundation was created to uplift families during NICU stays, stillbirth and infant loss. The nonprofit recently received federal recognition as a public charity.

Bareburger in Montclair will be hosting a “dine-and-donate” event to support the foundation on Sunday, Aug. 23. Guests who mention the Mia Joy Foundation will have 20 percent of their sales donated.

The foundation has published an Amazon wish list for its NICU drive, timed to Mia's first birthday on Aug. 19. The list will remain live year-round, with donation pushes each summer leading into her birthday. A second drive will run over the holidays.

The nonprofit was founded by Mia's parents, Hope Alcocer and Garrett King, after their own experience of loss.

Mia Joy King passed away last August two hours after she was born.

“When you lose a child, the world keeps asking you to make decisions you have no capacity to make,” Alcocer said.

“We were handed a stack of pamphlets about what to do next and had no one to ask a single question,” Alcocer recalled. “We were also in serious financial trouble in those weeks. People wanted to help and didn't know how.”

The foundation runs two programs to help other families who are walking in their footsteps:

GRIEF CONCIERGE – The Grief Concierge provides coordinated, hands-on support for families in the days and weeks after the loss of a baby. That can mean funeral home coordination, meals from local restaurants, donated childcare and pet care, and connection to mental health and healing services. The work is practical by design. It exists to carry the logistics a grieving family cannot.

MIA JOY PROJECT – The Mia Joy Project is an ongoing donation initiative that supplies NICU units serving lower-income communities with items families need during a stay, from newborn essentials to C-section recovery supplies to gift cards for parents living in a hospital waiting room. The foundation has already completed a NICU drive and is building a network of community drop-off locations.

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“Garrett and I walked both of these roads in a very short span of time, the NICU and then losing our daughter,” Alcocer said. “We built this so the next family doesn't have to figure it out alone, and so that no one has to ask.”

King said he hopes the foundation can be a resource for other grieving fathers.

“I want the dads to know they are not on the outside of this, and that there are resources available for the dads as well,” he said.

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