When’s the last time you heard any good news about our state’s budget, especially when it comes to social services? Astonishing as it may be, there is one program currently seeking low-income families to serve. Washington state WIC – the Nutrition Program for
Women, Infants and Children – has openings for 3,000-5,000 additional families.
At a time when nearly 14 percent of children under 5 live in poverty in King County, and almost 40 percent live in families struggling to afford food, health care, housing, and child care, this is welcome news. “WIC has really supported me,” says Kris Jones, a former Head Start lead teacher with 3-month-old twins. Like the majority of families on WIC, Jones works. She recently returned to work as a nanny after a three-month maternity leave.
Unlike Basic Food (Washington’s food stamp program), WIC is for pregnant women and families with infants or children up to age 5. The food choices are also more specific than those you can buy with Basic Food. WIC works with individual clients to assess their family’s nutritional needs, and monthly food allotments are determined accordingly. While the dollar amount averages about $50 per month per family member, WIC checks specify food amounts, not prices.
Jones’ monthly checks, for example, are based on her nutritional needs as the nursing mother of medically fragile twins. Recently, she learned that her daughter has a milk protein allergy, and WIC supports her need to be on a dairy- and soy-free diet. When and if her twins start on formula, her WIC checks will provide the allergy-free formula her daughter will need.
On the “Twin Breastfeeding Package,” Jones can choose from foods in the following groups: whole grains, milk and eggs, dried beans or peanut butter, juice, canned tuna or salmon, and fruits and vegetables. “The checks really support me in having a healthy diet,” she says. “They allow me to buy other healthy foods with my own money because they’re covering the basics.”
This is just the kind of thing Washington state WIC Nutrition Coordinator Cathy Franklin likes to hear. WIC’s mission is twofold: to optimize nutrition during the high-development early years of children’s lives, and to promote healthy food choices over the long term. To meet these goals, WIC contracts with neighborhood agencies where staff includes dieticians, nutritionists, lactation consultants, social workers, and nurses. Clients are required to meet monthly with at least one staff person when they come to pick up their checks.
Unless you’re on bed rest, which is what happened to preschool teacher Megan Mayfield for the last five weeks of her pregnancy. “They made it so easy; they mailed me my checks,” she says.
Like more than 15,000 of WIC’s clients statewide, Mayfield’s is a military family. Her husband served two tours in Iraq. Though Mayfield and her family are probably eligible for additional services like Basic Food and health insurance through the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), they don’t use them. “We’re lucky,” Mayfield says. Both her and her husband’s parents live nearby, and help out with their finances. “I don’t want to take advantage of the system,” she says. “We’re not as needy as other people right now.”
Though Mayfield was a little nervous going on WIC at first – “I didn’t want people to think I was poor,” she says – she has found the shopping process easy and the cashiers at checkout extremely friendly.
Jones echoes this experience with cashiers, and figures that any funny looks from other shoppers at the checkout line are due to lack of knowledge. “You have to group your food by check,” she says, “and some people might lump WIC in with other DSHS services, but it’s really a different program.”
The grouping-with-paper-checks issue will go away in the near future as WIC goes electronic. There’s a federal mandate for WIC to have EBT cards (electronic benefit cards, or “smart cards”) in place by 2020. Franklin hopes the system will be up and running in Washington by 2014-2015.
Fifty percent of babies born in Washington are on WIC. To find out if you or anyone you know is eligible, call the Family Health Hotline at 1-800-322-2588 or visit www.parenthelp123.org.
