Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
Commissioner Halkiotis asked Mary Rase Tully to profile this group of women <br />Mary Rose Tully said that 60°~ of babies born at UNC Hospitals every year are low-income <br />eligible. And of those, aver half are Spanish-speaking. They are immigrants and many are <br />working at minimum wage jabs and do not have a good connection with the health care system. <br />They are not welfare moms; they are working but not making a lot of money. They are often not <br />living close to their families and they are typically young and maybe having their first or second <br />child. They do not have a lot of education. She said it is so much better when you have <br />someone that speaks the language. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that Health Director Rosemary Summers had given them a report <br />two years ago about folic acid and babies. This is a very inexpensive supplement. He said that <br />these are the people that da not know how to lobby and this supplement for them was taken <br />away by the State. <br />Mary Rose Tully told a story about how she saw one of the clients that works at a Mexican <br />restaurant and the woman was so pleased by the help she received from the program. She <br />said that her baby had never been into the clinic for a sickness. She said that there are <br />statistics that show that babies who are breastfed far the first six months had an average of 11 <br />doctor visits in the first year and babies who were formula fed had an average of 18 doctor visits <br />in the first year. <br />Alice Pettit said that there is also the expanded nutrition assistance program along with the <br />lactation program. She said that they also get referrals from other agencies in the County. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that it was wonderful that he was involved in a program with <br />different groups teaching kids haw to eat healthy in the school system. He said that this is the <br />kind of stuff that communities and schools should be doing and he commended this <br />breastfeeding program. <br />Commissioner Brown asked how they lost their funding and Mary Rose Tully said that they do <br />not know exactly, but there were changes at the federal level for how nutrition funds were <br />allocated. The funds for this program come out of the food stamp program. They were told that <br />a new panel of people is now deciding how food stamp money is going to be used and someone <br />decided that breastfeeding belonged in nursing, which is in maternal/child health care. There <br />were also some things that happened at N. C. State. N. C. State has now put through a new <br />application on the Fast Track. They think they might get some funding back because these are <br />non-competitive dollars. <br />Chair Jacobs said that their legislative goals subcommittee met today and they talked about <br />whether it would be useful to ask the congress to look into restoring this funding. He said that <br />there could be a joint letter from the Board of County Commissioners and the Department of <br />Lactation Services at UNC Hospitals and explain this program and why it is valuable. <br />Mary Rase Tully said that she would be happy to work on this. <br />A motion was made by Commissioner Gordan, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to approve <br />the Manager's recommendation to approve the continued funding of the four positions attached <br />to EFNEP within Cooperative Extension through June 30, 2004 at a total cost of $35,000, with <br />funds to be transferred form the Human Services Safety Net. <br />