WASHINGTON (AP) — A food aid program that helps more than 6 million low-income mothers and young children will run out of federal money within two weeks unless the government shutdown ends, forcing states to use their own money to keep it afloat or risk it shutting down, experts say.
The $8 billion Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, provides vouchers to buy infant formula as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and other healthy staples that are often out of financial reach for low-income households.
The shutdown, which began Oct. 1, coincided with the beginning of a new fiscal year, meaning programs like WIC, which rely on annual infusions from the federal government, are nearly out of money. Currently, the program is being kept afloat by an $150 million contingency fund, but experts say it could run dry quickly.
After that, states could step in to pay for the program and seek reimbursement when a budget finally passes, but not all states say they can afford to do so.
“We feel good about one to two weeks,” said Ali Hard, policy director for the National WIC Association. “After that, we are very worried.”
SEKMHD reaches out to families
The Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Department, whose coverage includes Allen County, has reached out to the Register to share the details of its letter to WIC recipient families, noting the potential effects of the shutdown.
As of this week, funding for WIC food benefits is estimated to last until the end of October, “however that cannot be assured,” the letter reads.
The Health Department is encouraging recipients to continue shopping if their benefit period is open. They should redeem food and attend all appointments, although they are asked to stay in touch with their respective WIC clinics and check 24 hours in advance of any appointments to ensure those sites remain open.
If a recipient’s WIC clinic is closed, recipients are urged to contact the Kansas Department of Health and Environment at (785) 296-3683 for assistance.
The Health Department also encourages recipients to plan ahead by buying shelf-shable healthy foods or extra items they regularly use, and identify available alternative community resources such as food banks, or other non-profit organizations.
WIC helps families buy more nutritious food
Taylor Moyer, a mother of three who recently separated from her husband, has been receiving WIC since her first son was born nine years ago. She said the program allowed her to feed her children nutritious food that tends to be pricier than calorie-dense, processed options. It also provided guidance when she struggled to breastfeed and counseled her on how to handle her son’s picky eating stage.
“There’s been times where I have sat back in my house and really wondered how I was going to feed my family,” said Moyer, who works at the LGBT Life Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia. “And I went to the store with my WIC card … I got rice, I got avocados, I got eggs, and I made a balanced meal that was actually good.”
The shutdown came as Democrats and Republicans failed to pass a new spending plan. Democratic lawmakers want to extend tax credits that make health care cheaper for millions of Americans, and they want to reverse deep cuts to Medicaid that were passed earlier this year. They refused to sign on to any spending plan that did not include those provisions.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, blamed Democrats for the shutdown and called them hypocritical because failing to fund the federal government endangers so many health programs.
