WIC Will Include More Vegan Food
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The Women, Infants, Children (WIC) program is changing:
women and children who receive food vouchers through the federal government’s WIC program will be able to use them to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. [...]
The changes also will allow recipients — more than 8 million low-income pregnant women, new mothers and young children — to use WIC funds for whole grains, canned beans, baby food and tortillas. [...]
A UCLA study, published last year in the American Journal of Public Health, found that “if you add vouchers for fruits and vegetables that they get used and used wisely,” Harrison said.
Overall, few Americans are eating enough fruits and vegetables, said a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released Tuesday.
In the report, the CDC said that 14% of adults and 10% of adolescents were eating the recommended amounts of both fruits and vegetables — not including French fries — for their age and size. The recommended amount is two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables per day.
source: LA Times
Nice video here
(Thanks to Bea for the email.)
I know this link is very old but WIC does a very poor job of supporting vegan mothers and babies, at least in Illinois. You need a prescription from a doctor to get coupons for tofu and soymilk – otherwise it’s just cheese and whole milk. AND all the cereal at our WIC center contains the vitamin D3. Definitely NOT VEGAN. I’ve lost two months of benefits trying to get my Dr. to sign a note that has NOTHING to do with my CHOICE to not eat meat and dairy. It isn’t a medical decision, it’s a personal and ethical decision, yet WIC has taken it out of my hands completely. I’m just trying to spread the word that Illinois WIC is NOT supportive of Vegan Mothers and Babies.
Hi Erin, I’m sorry you’ve had frustrations. We use WIC and we haven’t experienced as many problems. WIC covers our soy formula and baby food.
I’ll grant that it’s not perfect. They only cover one brand of baby cereal and that’s not the brand we like (because of all the added ingredients in it) so we pay out of pocket for that. But it covers a brand of formula that we find acceptable (despite the D3 issue – all formulas use D3 in the USA, none use D2). And it covers fruit and veggie baby foods (that are just pure fruit or veggie, nothing else).
Here is a link that explains which foods WIC will cover: http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/benefitsandservices/foodpkgregs.HTM
I think that the specific brands that are covered are up to the individual local WIC office staff and the grocery stores in order to reduce costs.
So true. Honesty and evertyihng recognized.