Thank you for your support to put pressure on Mayor Booker, Newark, New Jersey. Below is a form letter you can use to send to the Mayor or you can write your own. The Mayor and his advisor, L'Tanya Williamson, Director, Newark Child and Family Well-being refuse to acknowledge any correspondence or requests to meet with concerned people.



Please email me off line if you have any questions.



 Many thanks

Renee (Vancouver, Canada)



Mayor Cory Booker

City Hall, Room 200, 920 Broad Street

Newark, New Jersey, USA, 07102

 

Email to: [log in to unmask]

CC to:

L'Tanya Williams, Director of Newark Child and Family well-being: [log in to unmask] 

Newark Health Officer: [log in to unmask] 

American Academy of Pediatrics:  [log in to unmask]

Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine: [log in to unmask] 

Center for Disease Control: [log in to unmask] 

Office of the Surgeon General: [log in to unmask] 

 

April 17, 2012

 

Dear Mayor Booker,

 

It has come to our attention, that hoping to target the problem of childhood obesity, under the First Lady's Campaign, "Let's Move!" you have partnered the City of Newark with Nestle to implement a "free" 2 year program to educate about breastfeeding and nutrition at all of Newark's 15 Family Success Centers.

 

We understand you have been provided research, International documents, a petition with close to 1800 signatures and hundreds of comments from concerned people, worldwide, explaining that Nestle has a long history of unethical marketing practices and that Nestle has only one goal and that is to promote their infant formula. The background for the photo shoot, when you accepted Nestle's $100,000.00 check, was covered with Nestle logos, Nestlé's formula ads pop up on their Newark / Nestle press release and the job descriptions for Nestle employment in Newark lists "promoting Gerber formula and protecting Nestlé's name".

 

 Infant formula is one of the major causes of obesity and illness: when babies are fed infant formula, instead of breast milk, health care costs increase dramatically. 

 

The United States has endorsed the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, developed, "to protect women from the commercial pressures to artificially feed their babies".

 

The US Surgeon General, in her 2011 Report called for all women to breastfeed their babies and stated:

"Marketing of infant formula within communities is another negative influence on breastfeeding. The WHO International Code of Breast-milk Substitutes declares that substitutes for breast milk should not be marketed in ways that can interfere with breastfeeding."

 

The Surgeon General further stated:

"Recent studies that used costs adjusted to 2007 dollars and evaluated costs associated with additional illnesses and diseases (sudden infant death syndrome, hospitalization for lower respiratory tract infection in infancy, atopic dermatitis, childhood leukemia, childhood obesity, childhood asthma, and type 1 diabetes mellitus) found that if 90% percent of U.S. families followed guidelines to breastfeed exclusively for six months, the United States would save $13 billion annually from reduced direct medical and indirect costs and the cost of premature death.  If 80% of U.S. families complied, $10.5 billion per year would be saved."

 

Please take immediate action to cancel Newark's partnership with Nestle.

 

Yours sincerely, 

             ***********************************************

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