The October SPAC meeting was held at the statehouse. SPAC hosted a panel discussion regarding Childhood Obesity/ Food Insecurities. The Panelist were: 

Nancy Parello, Communications Director, ACNJ - http://youtu.be/4oEE7w337jo

Peri Nearon, Director, Office of Nutrition and Fitness, Shaping NJ, Division of Family Health Services NJ Department of Health & Human Services - http://youtu.be/NJVy4UHRfMM

Susan Jones, Director of Agency Services and Programs, Mercer Street Friends Food Bank; http://youtu.be/W8b-3SpM_NI and

Marissa Davis, Project Coordinator, New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids-Trenton - http://youtu.be/XKU0VID7vgk

SPAC Meeting Research Update

Umbilical Cord Blood 

New Jersey was the first state to create a statewide, publicly funded cord blood bank. SPAC has been supporting the NJCBB since 2005. We took the position of supporting legislation that required doctors to notify their patients about the option to donate their baby’s cord blood and helping raise awareness about the donations

Cord blood treats over 70 life threatening diseases

SPAC supports Senate Bill 1534/ Assembly Bill 1642 (20% of the fee charged for the initial certified copy of a birth certificate be used to support the NJCBB)

Money will be used to: support the operations and expansion of the NJCBB; Increase the number of ethnically and racially diverse cord blood units available for patients in need of transplants; Expand collection sites, especially at high-birth and high diversity hospitals partnering with the NJCBB; At Beth Israel in Newark, 1/3 of the current banked samples are from African American moms. This group is underrepresented in the national registries; Cost per unit is between $1500- $2500 so need more funding to increase the # of units on the NMDP Registry. 

Any samples not used can be donated to promote research: NJCI and Rutgers University for non-clinical and peer-reviewed research.