Amber Waves: How WIC Impacts

Fortunately there are programs that assist families in crisis and can help to feed the children of the United States; however the number of hungry children is growing. Child hunger in the United States has been described as an increasingly complex problem and has been called the “silent epidemic.” (Goldstein, 2009)

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers food assistance programs that help provide food for low to no income families. It is their goal to increase food security and reduce hunger by increasing access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education for low-income Americans (Caswell, 2013, para. 1). Some of the current nutrition assistance programs include “the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)”(Caswell, 2013, para. 1). SNAP will be the primary nutrition assistance program of the paper at hand. No matter how morally good it is to try to help reduce hunger and increase food security within the United States, there are still many questions regarding issues with SNAP. This paper will be discussing why there is such a strong support for the program, how it helps the United States as a whole, problems with the program, and why some people are against SNAP.

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutritional Services is a federal program that provides health care and proper nutrition to low income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women during a crucial time for both mothers and babies. The mission of WIC is to “safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.” (Food and Nutrition Service, 2010).

WIC program target low-income populations who are exposed to nutritional risks. Among these, women, infants and small children considered to be most at risk. The program, therefore, intends to cater for pregnant women, up to the end of the pregnancy period, or up to 6 weeks after birth, breastfeeding women up to one year after birth, infants to their first birthday, and children till they reach five years of age. Through this policy, their health is safeguarded facilitating for a healthy normal life to the newborn. Among the benefits accrued by the beneficiaries are supplemental nutritious food, nutritional counseling and education, and access to other health,

Hunger has been a prevalent issue in both established communities and struggling nations around the globe. It seems that there has never been a time when every person on the planet was food secure, and while it is typically assumed that hunger is an issue only in developing nations, malnutrition and hunger are concerns even in the United States. Millions of children across the country live in homes where food is scarce and meals are skipped on a regular basis. Because research supports the connection between nutrition, good health, and cognitive ability, it is critical that methods of addressing food shortages for minor children be found. One solution, the School Breakfast Program, seeks to provide healthy breakfast meals for children

The Hunger-free kids act is a nutrition program that provides all children with healthy food in school and to low income families. Because of this act schools are playing a larger role in children’s health. Included in this legislation other programs that focus on hunger has come into play such as: Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Woman, Infants and Children (WIC), Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), Summer Food Service Program, After School Meal Program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed). The programs under the Hunger-free kids act do not have a specific expiration date however,

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports 16.7 million children under the age of eighteen live in a household where consistent access to adequate amounts of nutritious food for a healthy life is not obtainable. This is called food insecurity. Although this is harmful to any individual, it has major implications for children. Nutrition establishes

It was difficult to read that countless millions of federal dollars and many of our country's most successful efforts to halt the spread of childhood hunger and starvation have recently been withdrawn. And as a result, this problem of childhood hunger is not getting better but is actually getting worse. The most recent estimates compiled by the USDA in 1999 indicate that 36.2 million Americans live in food-insecure households, which means that their access to adequate and safe food is limited or uncertain. This too is very disturbing information.

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) policy of 1975 establishes various programs to address the issue of malnutrition in Women, Infants, and Children (Khanani, Elam, Hearn, Camille, and Noble, 2010). In an attempt to tackle the problem, the bill established a program to supply foodstuffs to breastfeeding mothers, children under the age of five and food formulae for infants that for medical reasons may not be breastfed (Davis et al., 2014). The program also provides breast pumps and ensures prolonged eligibility for families living below the US poverty line families enjoying other benefits devised for the financially challenged. Two social welfare policies evident in this program include redistribution and social control since the

Hunger is considered huge issue in the United States. When it comes to managing food sources, it is easy to get predications from children based on their immediate experiences of food rather than parental reports that rely mostly on the economic value such as mother, households etc.… because such predications for instance, cannot be more accurate as children express their felling just in daily basis. In the published article at San Diego State University on February 20.2017, "Children Are Aware of Food Insecurity and Take Responsibility for Managing Food Resources’’. Farm et al made extensive research about this important topic, and wrote surveys addressing their reports after the information they collected from the

Imagine your stomach growling, a feeling of emptiness, fatigue, and an inability to concentrate. Most people would associate these feelings with hunger and eat. Unfortunately, many Americans do not have the luxury of eating because of living in poverty. According to the Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of people living in poverty rose from 31.6 million in 2000 to 36.5 million in 2006. The number of people living in households facing food insecurity rose from 31 million in 1999 to 35.5 million in 2006. More than 12 million of the people living in food insecure households were children (Labue, 2009). Food America (2017) reports:

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Woman, Infants, and Children (WIC) was established in1972. This federally funded program’s primary focus is the nutritional harm that hunger, and poverty creates specifically for mothers, soon-to-be mothers, children and infants (Blau and Abramovitz, 2014). This program has seen an influx of participants over the many years since its existence. Recently, in 2009 WIC underwent major changes that would benefit both mothers and their children. WIC required its participants to buy healthier foods and pushed grocery stores to provide healthier foods for the participants (Block and Subramanian, 2015). Most recipients of WIC are low-income and more than likely live in neighborhoods with food deserts.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the federal Healthy, Hungry-Free, Kids Act 2010 (Public Law: 111-296), provide an overview of the literature, discuss the implementation process, evaluate the policy, and provide explanations for continued support, or provide rationale on why the program should end. The Healthy, Hunger-Free, Kids Act (HHFKA) currently awaits re-authorization, and funding by Congress. The HHFKA was originally included in the Congressional reauthorization process, of the original 1966 Child Nutrition Act, (CNA) which establishing several nutrition programs for school aged children. The CNA was introduced as part of President Johnsons’ “war on poverty” (Matthews, 2014). The Healthy, Hungry-Free, Kids Act 2010, set new

Food insecurity is one of the leading public health challenges in the United States today, since millions of people (children and adults) are food insecure because of insufficient money income and other socioeconomic and demographic factors. (Seligman, Kushel, & Laraia, 2010)

Food access has historically been an issue for needy and/or problem children, and those issues have evolved over time. What was once defined by hunger and starvation, food insecurity is now defined by obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. However, the core issue remains the same—that poor children suffer from malnutrition due to lack of proper nutritional support systems. Public food support services can help these children, but food security is still an issue for these children. According to The Impact of the National School Lunch Program on Child Health, “Children in households reporting the receipt of free or reduced-price school meals through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) are more likely to have negative health outcomes than observationally similar nonparticipants” (Gundersen, Kreider, & Pepper 2012, p. 79). While federal food assistance programs like the National School Lunch Program add caloric supplementation to a child’s dietary needs, it’s clear that these programs still leave many dietary needs unaddressed. Gundersen et. al. also found free lunch recipients are worse off than eligible nonparticipants in terms of health outcomes (see Appendix A for detailed analysis and statistics). Despite efforts to relieve food insecurity in low-income households, those public food assistance programs may not effectively eradicate food insecurity and might also exasperate problematic health outcomes for the children involved in these food programs. Thus, food