MANSFIELD – Richland County’s WIC program serves more than 2,000 families across the county – and the program is searching for many more.
The special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children has been around since 1972. It serves 2,423 cases in Richland County. According to WIC Director Tina Picman, the program is looking for about 400 more cases.
“We know there are families out there and we’re just not capturing them,” Picman said. “We want to serve more young families in Richland County.”
WIC was originally created as an amendment to the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, and is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The government realized the physical and mental health of pregnant women, infants and young children were at risk because of poor or inadequate nutrition and health care.
As a result, WIC was authorized to provide supplemental nutritious foods and nutrition education as an adjunct to good health care during critical times of growth and development.
“Kids weren’t mentally or physically meeting their potential, and they studied how kids were eating, especially low-income families – problems with not having enough food, not knowing what the right foods are, and not having the resources to get the right kinds of food,” Picman said.
The state division of WIC determined recently there were 6,000 people potentially eligible for WIC in Richland County. Picman realizes the program cannot reach every single eligible family, but she emphasized that many families are more eligible than they may realize.
“One problem is if a family has one working member or even two working members, they automatically think they don’t qualify,” she explained. “But we’re serving both low- and middle-income families, and I think it’s the middle-income families that we really have a hard time reaching.”
Applying for WIC is a more in-depth progress than other food programs. It requires an in-person appointment with health history, proof of residency and proof of income paperwork, among other things. It also requires weight and measurements for family members, and an appointment with a dietician.
“What they’re looking for, in order to qualify for WIC, is a health or nutrition problem,” Picman explained. “They’re screening everybody to find what their health or nutrition risk is.
“Once that is determined, they can prescribe a food package, they can provide nutrition information, and we load our benefits on an EBT (electronic benefit transfer) card.”
However, the benefit of WIC is worth the process. Services include health and nutrition education, breastfeeding support, and a food package prescribed by a dietician. This allows families to purchase healthy foods like milk, eggs, peanut butter, fresh or canned fruit and vegetables, whole grains and 100 percent fruit juice.
The benefits of WIC are long-term. For every dollars spent in a WIC program, $5 is saved in future child healthcare costs, according to Picman. Also, for every dollars spent on a prenatal patient, $4 is saved in other federal food programs.
“If a mom doesn’t come into WIC and she’s not eating well and smoking during pregnancy and making other poor choices, and she ends up delivering a preterm baby who has multiple, long hospitalizations, it will be a long-term healthcare nightmare for that family because mom didn’t eat well during pregnancy,” Picman said.
“We’ve got that mom versus someone who comes to us early in pregnancy, we talk about the growth of her baby and why it’s important to eat well, the WIC foods she’s going to get will provide key nutrients important to her, and that mom delivers a full-term baby that’s a good birth weight. This is how we really help to improve the health of our future citizens.”
The future of WIC is intricately tied to how many families the program is able to reach in Richland County. Picman explained the amount of money that comes into the county for WIC is sometimes tied to whether the program is at caseload; with WIC approximately 400 families short of caseload, Picman does not want to be in a situation where funding could be cut.
However, the most important goal of finding more families for WIC is improving the community’s health, and helping children reach their maximum physical and mental potential.
“The bottom line is, it’s such a good program and we want to help people,” Picman said. “That’s the most important. We know people are out there, and we want to help them.”
WIC offers:
• Healthy foods
• Nutrition guidance
• Breastfeeding support & breast pumps
To Qualify for WIC:
Your monthly income should be at or below the following guidelines:
• Family of 2: $2,470
• Family of 3: $3,108
• Family of 4: $3,747
• Family of 5: $4,385
Who is eligible for WIC?
Women who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or have a baby less than six months old and infants and children up to five years old.
Why not give WIC a call?
Richland County: 419-774-4560
Ashland County: 419-289-3359
