Food Deserts

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).

Food deserts are one of the main causes of obesity in lower income areas, and while initiatives are being created to solve this problem, more than just a few initiatives are needed to change the obesity issue.

Food deserts are one of the biggest problems in society, as the authors of Food Justice bring up (Gottlieb & Joshi, 2010). In fact, Indianapolis is ranked worst in the nation for food deserts. So what is a food desert? A food desert is when places are left with the lack of availability of nutritious foods and high rates of poverty. Often times, these are known as grocery gaps because grocery stores move out of the area, normally located in low-income communities. It makes sense that they would move to make more profit, but it leaves those in the community left with essentially nothing. Also, most people living in a low-income community do not have access to transportation, so they cannot get to grocery stores that are outside of walking distance. This is why Gleaners, a local food justice organization, steps in and fills in places where grocery stores have left. The program that works to fix this is Mobile Pantries. As I will explore later, Mobile Pantries allows people who cannot reach grocery stores the ability to get nutritious foods they need. Mobile Pantries give people a sense of going to the grocery store and picking out healthy foods. While consumer choice is limited, as Patel mentions, Mobile Pantries still gives people healthy options (Patel, 2014). Gleaners is a part of the Food Justice Movement because while they are not changing consumer choice, they are providing individuals with the option of healthy foods and working to end hunger and obesity

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

Hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans live in what’s known as a food desert. A food desert is in an area of focus that is short on access to fresh meat and produce. These areas are usually over populated with packaged and processed foods, which are not always healthy. They also have a significant amount junk that you can easily find in convenience stores and fast food restaurants.

WIC had been around since the 70’s and even then was very much about the health of mothers and their children. “1972: WIC was piloted as a supplemental food program aimed at improving the health of pregnant mothers, infants and children in response to growing concern over malnutrition among many poverty-stricken mothers and young children.” (WIC Program Overview and History | National WIC Association). The US Department of Agriculture is in charge of WIC, “WIC is a public health nutrition program under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture”. (WIC Program Overview and History | National WIC Association). The United States Department of Agriculture also funds WIC.WIC was created because of poverty and how families were living. People were starving and couldn’t afford to get food. “WIC was created in 1974 as a response to the realization that hunger and poverty were widespread in this country and that inadequate nutrition poses real dangers to pregnant women, new mothers, infants and children.” (WIC (Women, Infants and Children) « Food

Medicare has a thin line when it comes to covering obesity, but it seems to become harder to receive coverage. According to an overview entitled “Obesity”, it “Is a condition where the body of a mammal has stored so much energy that the fatty tissues are stored and expanding to create a significant health risk, with an increased rate of mortality to the body” (Gale Encyclopedia of Science 2014). After years of living with obesity, it can eventually be fatal, or develop more health hazards such as diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, and osteoarthritis. Mildly obese begins after becoming 20% above ideal weight. With the use of Medicare and government fundings, we can prevent food deserts, support programs needed for the people, and include psychological coverage.

Citizens have been struggling for far too long, and that is when former First Lady Michelle Obama created her own fresh food initiative, the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, was launched and opened supermarkets in close reach to some of the most low-income neighborhoods. Many people would think the opening of closer stores would help the low-income families, but “a 2011 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed no connection between access to grocery stores and more healthful diets using 15 years’ worth of data from more than 5,000 people in five cities” (Gilligan). The problem is not always what it seems to be, and sometimes many people forget that, Bruce McEwan, a researcher in biology believes strongly that there is other things behind low-income families not eating healthy.

WIC is a program intended for Woman, Infants, and Children to give not only nutrition but also education about nutrition and referrals for healthcare and other social services. The program is available to eligible pregnant, nursing, or postpartum women and helps infants and children till the age of five. The WIC Program’s purpose is to help enhance the diets of women, infants, and children, and there is an approved list of foods that participants must follow when purchasing items. In addition to providing nutritious foods, the WIC Program also provides materials about eating healthy and leading an active lifestyle through classes in three different arrangements: clients can take nutrition classes online, nutrition and exercise classes in a

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children also known as WIC is a nutrition program aimed at assisting low-income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, infants, and children up to 5 years old who are at nutritional risk. The program aims to assist the individuals by providing foods with nutritional value in addition to their normal diet, also giving information about healthy eating including breastfeeding, and the program also gives referrals to healthcare services.

Millions of people, both children and adults are plagued with obesity. In 2007, approximately 22 million children under 5 were overweight (Kipping, Russell, & Lawlor, 2008). This is a global concern. According Singh1, Shiapush & Kogan (2010), childhood obesity has been on the up-rise in the past few decades; therefore, pushing it to the top of the list as one of public health major concerns. In 2010, Michelle Obama initiated a movement to help fight the war against childhood obesity. This effort was in hope of reaching an entire generation so that they could be afforded the best opportunity to live a prosperous and healthy life. The projected goals were to change the attitudes and perceptions of a whole generation by changing how they view food and nutrition. According to Let’s Move! (n.d.), Michelle Obama proposed that these goals could be reached by doing five important things.

The Gorgia Women's, Infant and Children's program (WIC) provides nutrition education and supplemental food to low income families. Families eligible for this program recieve a nutritional assessment, health screening,medical history, body measurements (weight and height), hemoglobin check, nutrition education, breastfeeding support, referrals to other health and social services, and vouchers for healthy foods. The main objective of this program is to follow these children until the age of five, increase the number of breastfeeding mother and the length of time they breast feed,decrease the number of overweight and obese children, and increase the nutrition education of people particioitating in the program. The vouchers supplied are for health

The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) was started in 1972, and was permanently established in 1974 by the USDA (WIC Fact Sheet, 2015; Brown, 2011). WIC was established to safeguard the health of women, infants, and children up to age five who are low income and at nutritional risk; their mission is carried out by means of supplementing diets by providing access to nutritious foods, nutrition education, breastfeeding education, breastfeeding promotion, breastfeeding support, and referrals to health and other social service agencies (WIC Fact Sheet, 2015). WIC is one of the most successful nutrition programs in the United States that is federally funded; it has served approximately 5.7 million children and 1.8 million women in fiscal years 2001-2003 (Brown, 2011). “WIC is not an entitlement program as Congress does not set aside funds to allow every eligible individual to participate in the program. WIC is a Federal grant program for which Congress authorizes a specific amount of funds each year for the program.” (WIC at a Glance, 2015, p. 1). WIC is directed by the Food and Nutrition Service at the Federal level and run by 90 WIC state agencies that operates through 1,900 local agencies in 10,000 clinic sites, in 50 State health departments, 34 Indian Tribal Organizations, the District of Columbia, Northern Mariana, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands (WIC at a Glance, 2015).

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) was established as a two-year pilot program in 1972 and made permanent in 1974, partially in response to the 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health (United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, 2011). The conference reported that unmet nutritional needs among low-income women and children create maternal and child health problems (House of Representatives, Task Force on Human Resources, & Committee on the Budget, 1990). The goal of the WIC program is to reduce child mortality and to educate mothers on the nutritional needs for themselves and their children. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman stated, “WIC works, perhaps

As a way to fight childhood obesity, it is essential to know the motivations, barriers, and obstacles that work towards weight loss success for children. Whether it’s an unhealthy household environment, lack of health service resources, or food insecurity all of these potential barriers must be faced. Within my hometown of East Hollywood, California, I have participated with East Hollywood Certified Farmers’ Market in the development of a nutritional education program for the market. I created the 8-week theme lesson plans for the program that is currently being processed and turned into reality. I have also volunteered at the market to inform customers about the Market Match program, which increases the food budget for low-income households