WIC
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The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children - or WIC - provides nutritious foods, nutrition education, and access to health care to low-income pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and children under 5. The monthly WIC food package provides foods chosen to improve nutrition for pregnant women, new mothers, and their infants. Adequate and consistent nutrition is crucial to the health and development of very young children, whose brains and bodies are growing rapidly. WIC increases the number of women receiving prenatal care, reduces the incidence of low birth weight and fetal mortality, reduces anemia, and enhances the nutritional quality of the diet of participants.
What's happening with WIC in D.C.?
New WIC Food Package
We are working with the District’s WIC agency to implement USDA’s newly modernized WIC food package (the foods obtainable with WIC coupons) in the best possible way for clients. The new rules must be implemented in states and the District by October 2009 and include an expanded set of healthy foods. The new food package may include fruits, vegetables, soy milk, tofu, and whole grains other than whole grain breads. The original categories of milk, cheese, eggs, fruit, juice, cereal, beans/peanut butter, infant formula and (for breast feeding women) tuna and carrots will continue to be a part of the package.
WIC Participation Climbs in D.C.
In 2007, D.C. Hunger Solutions began collaborating with the D.C. WIC agency to enroll more local residents in WIC. Together, we conducted aggressive outreach to potential referral partners – medical professionals, women’s organizations, community groups, and others – to increase awareness of the program and encourage those groups to promote WIC among their clients. As a result, WIC participation increased by more than 1,200 new clients. Today, the program reaches 16,878 pregnant women, new mothers, and children under age five.
D.C. Hunger Solutions can help by:
- providing you with WIC outreach materials for you to share with your clients;
- giving presentations to your network on the benefits of and how to enroll in WIC;
- training your staff on how to conduct effective outreach and identify good WIC candidates.
Help us spread the word:
- Read our WIC Referral Partner Guide. (pdf)
- Distribute our flyer for working families. (pdf)
- Learn more about the D.C. WIC program.
