Thanks to all of you who posted on Lactnet and emailed me privately with suggestions of how to proceed.  Maria and I have tried most of these things but I don't think that matters - try them again - you know the drip, drip, drip!  And keep your suggestions coming - you are giving others ideas!! I was hoping someone in Newark would organize women, living in the city, to contact the Mayor but no one has come forward. We can hope that maybe something is happening behind the scenes?

 The consensus is that the Mayor isn't going to listen to anyone but his constituents. I find this shocking that he, a politician, can make decisions that affect health and health care costs but it seems he is accountable to no one.  Does anyone understand this better than I do?

Thanks to Allison Laverty Montag, (Wisconsin) who found email addresses for women's groups in Newark and other areas of New Jersey.  A letter went out to them today.  We're hoping that maybe one of them might be interested enough to do something.  

I wrote to about 25 Places of Worship in Newark (no one replied).  Some of you must be affiliated with churches in your city or state. Is there a national body for each domination? - can you ask them to reach out to Newark?  The churches know about Nestle because the International Nestle Boycott was started in the US churches. If you need  letters to different groups, please let me know, and I can draft something you can use.

The Newark / Nestle partnership, slated to start in May, has not started so we are still working hard.  Don't give-up on this important issue yet!!  I have never worked on an action that didn't succeed - stay with me, ask what you can do!

And pressure the USBC to please live up to their Mission Statement, "to Protect, (against marketing - this is the Code), Promote and Support Breastfeeding".  Anyone noticing how quiet they are? And they still haven't published anything, (under actions) on their site about Newark / Nestle (or Michigan Newark) ????

Someone remarked that "petitions don't work".  I beg to differ.  It hasn't convinced the Mayor to cancel the Nestle program, but it is a great educational tool in the US and other countries.  Newark / Nestle has already been discussed at meetings and conferences in other countries.  Maybe it will prevent Nestle from trying the same unethical marketing technique again.

We would like to keep the petition going for a while longer.  The signatures are lagging because Maria and I are so swamped so please help us keep it going.  Who else can you ask to sign it?  Once my clients, immediate problems have settled down, I ask them if they would like to sign. And you can thank your friends and colleagues if they already signed and ask them if they can go through their address books again.  It's OK to beg a bit - this is an important issue!  And I still believe there must be some men out there  - somewhere - less than 1% of signatures are male!! Thank you to the men who took the time!! 

Petition link: http://www.change.org/petitions/mayor-cory-booker-newark-new-jersey-usa-stop-the-hypocritical-newarknestle-campaign-to-target-childhood-obesity?share_id=HDVyjOmNmk&    

Renee (in Vancouver)

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