(Important to acknowledge here, for non-birthing parents and guardians including fathers, kinship, foster, adopt and/or non-breastfeeding mothers, WIC, like TANF, has child-only cases.) WIC was designed as a short-term public health intervention program for low-income pregnant and post-partum women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are deemed at nutritional risk. However, unlike SNAP, WIC operates as a block grant, similar to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ( TANF) program, with grants being provided to states individually and administered at the local level by county or city health departments, hospitals, schools, and sometimes private nonprofits. Like many other nutrition assistance programs such as the well-known Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), WIC is housed at the Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) arm of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). WIC is now one of the largest nutrition-assistance programs in the country, serving about half of all infants born in the United States. By the mid-1970s the program was expanded and made permanent. The WIC program began as a federal pilot program in the early 1970s as a response to a growing concern over malnutrition among poverty-stricken mothers and their young children. Therefore, we are teaming up to ensure all WIC eligible families have access to the program and that the program is working as intended. The Center for Community Solutions and Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio share the goals of improving maternal and infant health outcomes and strengthening the health and human service safety net, intersect at the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). We understand that tackling the maternal and infant health crisis in our state will require a multi-faceted approach. Our work has included efforts to expand and diversify the perinatal workforce to increase provider-patient racial concordance, advocating for improved data collection and lobbying for 12-months of postpartum insurance coverage for birthing individuals. With increased national attention and resources directed to the maternal and infant health crisis in our country, that is, women in the United States remaining the most likely to die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth in the developed world, we continue to seek solutions not only improve outcomes but tackle disparities. Katherine Ungar, Policy Associate, Children’s Defense Fund – Ohio Lane-Gavin, Fellow, Health Equity, The Center for Community Solutions and WIC promotes racial equity, reduces infant mortality, and increases use of preventive health careīy: Hope A.
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