To politely suggest to the Nursery that they shouldn't be using Nestle products?

[zimm]

DD's otherwise excellent nursery serves some nestle branded cereals. This doesn't sit well with me as I don't think a place that cares for children should support Nestle. I imagine it just hasn't crossed their minds but it does bug me that her fess are used to buy products from Nestle. WIBU to take in some baby milk action stuff and make a suggestion they switch products? Yes I know they are are bigger things to worry about but I do believe if a nestle boycott is worth doing, then it is worth doing right.

I wouldn't describe Starbucks as an independent coffee shop.

And of course I would welcome posters/flyers supporting causes I disagree with. Anything to increase the level of political discourse. My butchers displayed a Vote Conservative poster during the last election - I joshed with him about it but it would never occur to me to ask him to take it down. I would rather people held opinions I disagreed with than no opinion at all

malinois You are of course right about Starbucks and in everything else you say - but I'd still like to know: what about Nestle employees or similar?

I haven't read all the thread, OP, but I would certainly bring this to the nursery's attention. I don't know anyone who buys Nestlé products, and to be honest I'm completely taken aback that so many people on the thread didn't know about the rationale for the boycott. Judging by the thread, it's very likely the nursery staff know nothing about it.

If I were running a business and a client brought an ethical issue I wasn't aware of to my attention, I'd be grateful for the information, if only because it meant I might lose business. No way of saying whether it will work any changes, but certainly worth a try.

andrew in the case of our nursery, I don't think the nursery manager would let a nestle employee through the door given her experiences in her home country.

If a nursery was close to a large nestle factory they would have to balance the economic and moral argument. But on the other hand I imagine that most nestle employees would value convenience and value of a nursery over the fact that it might boycott their employer's products.

Do most employees strongly identify with their employer any more? I think the end of jobs for life and the fact that most multis see employees simply as resources has put paid to that. We had a 'Human Capital' dept at my last place - says it all really.

for example: Starbacks, primark, cars, flying, Macdonalds and many more

Why primark ?

Has something radically changed since this report out of this league table from ethical consumer in 2009 ?

Retailer.......................Score out of 100
Monsoon.....................79
Marks & Spencer.......74
Gap..............................71
Next..............................62
H&M.............................58
Tesco...........................53
Mango..........................49
River Island..................45
Sainsbury?s..................45
Primark........................42
John Lewis..................38
ASDA..........................37
Debenhams................37
New Look....................37
Topshop......................34
Zara.............................33
TK Maxx......................20
Esprit..........................19
Matalan......................16
Karen Millen..............15
House of Fraser.......11
Peacocks.................10
FCUK..........................3
Ann Harvey.................0
BHS............................0
Dunnes.......................0
Edinburgh Woollen Mills..0
Moss Bros.................0
Urban Outfitters.........0

www.ethicalconsumer.org/Mediainfo/pressreleases/clothesshops.aspx

malinois "Human Capital" - Oh lord . . . that is indeed gross. I wonder if they got tired of Human Resources being nicknamed Human Remains!

I was really thinking more of the parent one of whose own employer's biggest customers was Nestle - or indeed the parent who is the owner of a business which did a lot of work for them.

Take your point about employees being less likely than once they were to identify with employers. But if the leaflet attacks the company you are working for it may sound like an attack on you, and that's not going to be welcome when you are taking your children there to be looked after.

I fear we will have to agree to disagree!

/ goes off to buy yet more nestle products

YABU

YABU.

Do your bit, stand up for what you feels right. I do it all the time. You can make people aware then it is up to them if they want to support unethical brands.
YANBU

YABVU, buy your own child cereal of your choice but dont force your beliefs on other parents.

I find your boycotts strange given you made several couples pay hundreds of pounds when you pulled out of a house sale the day or so before completion, seems you are choosy as to when you apply your morals.

I have asked my nursery not to give my DCs Nestle products, and explained why (giving them the information from Baby Milk Action). They were very interested and started to just buy own-brand cereals for all the children, but that was their choice. Seemed like a good way to spread the message without being demanding or pressurising them - which sounds exactly like what you're considering doing (not pressurising I mean).

I've done it for my older child's PTA, too. They weren't so keen as they were more interested in raising a few extra pennies for the school than worrying about how we might be affecting other people's children. But that seems to be prevalent on this thread, too. Which is bizarre, but hey ho.

I guess once you've spent enough time in Africa and seen what happens you get a different perspective on it :( It's very easy to think it's doesn't matter when you don't have to worry about whether you feed your 6 year old or the baby today because you've been given free formula for just long enough without realising the consequences and now you've got no milk - and no more free formula. Or, when you have to choose between taking your baby to the doctor with potentially fatal diarrhea or feeding your other 5 kids for the next month.

Good on you.

For the outrageous prices my local nurseries charge I would be well fucked off if they gave them cheap shit to eat!

If you read the packets the supermarket brands are often healthier than branded ones, anyway.

And there are plenty of branded non-Nestle products, too.

Finally, the Nestle so-called healthy cereals are anything but. Over-processed sugar-filled junk.

yabu - send your child to nursery with their own cereal, tell them why and leave it at that.

It appears I am in the minority but I would and have asked my university not to stock Nestle products and they withdrew 12 of 14 products. I simply sent them a link to the WHO position and asked that where possible they use a different brand.

They spoke to the catering company who agreed and they were withdrawn except for Kit Kats (and something else I forget but has now been withdrawn too) because that was the only Nestle product that was difficult to replace.

I wasn't militant, I didn't demand, I just asked and they agreed. That's a much more powerful action than my personal boycott will ever produce and I doubt any students have even noticed products like bottled water are not Nestle anymore. Well done Kingston University.

Katie well done, and i'm sure you apply a similarly vigorous vetting process to everything else that you buy.

Oh do shut up! You cant push your beliefs onto others. Yes maybe your sister/auntie/cousin/friend but not a business fgs

If you are not happy remove her from the nursery to one that does 'support boycotting nestle'

Nestle weaning products like Nestum in Latin America are full of sugar, unbelievable...

This boycott really isn't widespread at all. I just checked and my student union is one of the 73. I don't know a single person who boycotts nestle in real life, including officers of this union! No one really knows about it and the few that do don't care, including me TBH.

It clearly hasn't harmed nestle and boycotts don't tend to work at all (though I'm a bit of a hypocrite there I guess as I refuse to buy the sun, even if I doubt it makes a difference), and all of the big companies are as bad as each other now.

OP, YANBU if you ask them not to give your child nestle products and explain why if you really want to but you can't expect them to stop buying nestle products!

Katie I hope they didn't switch to any Danone bottled water e.g. Evian. Danone are just as bad as Nestle, it's just that babymilkaction aren't as vocal about them.

Danone is under consideration for adding to the boycott because of their current practises. It may well be that BMA start to become vocal about them soon.

For those who feel that the boycott does nothing - I can assure you that you are wrong. It has made a significant difference to the way that Nestle promote formula in developing countries (no more milk nurses for instance). Unfortunately, though, it still needs to continue and probably always will, firstly because there still is a massive way to go (certainly the boycott has yet to stop Nestle's awful practises), and secondly because once pressure is lifted they immediately go backwards as was seen when it was temporarily lifted some time ago. It is essential that it continues.

I feel very sad when people say "they don't care". I just honestly fail to understand why people don't care about other people, their babies and the social, personal health and environmental damage that Nestle inflicts. They just don't do it in the UK because the UK version of the boycott is so powerful that they can't break into the UK market for formula.