The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) offers a food package, nutrition education, breastfeeding support, health care referrals, and other services to low-income pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age five who are determined to be at nutritional risk. Those who qualify are provided with monthly checks to buy foods designed to give them the nutrients they need to stay healthy. WIC is a vital nutrition program for low-income families that has been shown to improve birth weight outcomes, increase vaccine uptake, reduce iron deficiency anemia, and improve diet quality.
To participate, an applicant must meet income guidelines and a state residency requirement. Applicants must also be deemed at nutritional risk by a health professional. The WIC income guidelines are based on household size. If any members of a family receive assistance from other federal nutrition programs, such as food stamps, SNAP, Medicaid or TANF, they automatically meet income guidelines for WIC.
Applicants must also complete the WIC program in Chicago application. Once approved, participants will receive a WIC appointment to pick up their monthly food package at a local grocery store or farmers’ market. In addition, many states are piloting eWIC, an electronic benefits card that will replace the paper checks currently given to participants. Illinois is expected to roll out the new card in 2020.
WIC is one of the most successful nutrition programs ever launched by federal, state and local governments. In a time when hunger persists for millions of Americans, it makes sense to ramp up outreach and make the process easier for families to find out if they’re eligible. Pediatricians, social service agency workers and others who interact with mothers and expectant moms should routinely alert them about the program.
EverThrive Illinois convened the Making WIC Work Coalition in 2019 to bring together partners, those who run WIC sites and current and former participants to learn more about what they needed from the program and how to make it better for everyone involved. The recommendations the group developed are now being implemented. The changes will prioritize outreach, make the shopping experience more convenient, invest in and diversify the workforce, and modernize technology and service delivery. For more information, visit our Making WIC Work page or check out our full non-discrimination statement.