WIC Employees In Mississippi: A Case Study

Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) provides services to 3,600 unduplicated homeless clients each year, working to move clients from having no secure residence to residing in a stable facility. The Homeless Access Center and Shelter Plus Care programs under WLCAC assist homeless individuals and their families by providing supportive and educational services, case management, family counseling, drug counseling, mental health services, and temporary shelter, transitional housing, and long-term Section 8 housing. These programs enable hundreds of families each year to move from homelessness and poverty to stability and economic self-sufficiency. Also, the professionals providing services at WLCAC are Licensed Clinical Social Workers, MSW interns, outreach coordinators, case managers and administrative support. With collaboration of the Los Angeles Housing Authority (LAHSA) and United Way they are able to fund the permanent supportive housing. The Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LASA) funds the Access Center; the Department of Mental Health (DMH) funds the temporary housing program; and WLCAC also collaborates with HOPICS, for the homeless outreach program.

SNAP is the foundation of nutrition assistance programs. This program provides over 47 million individuals in nearly 23 million low-income households. The eligibility is not restricted to certain groups of individuals, and because of this, SNAP serves a vast amount of families with children, elderly people, and individuals with disabilities. Others eligible for SNAP include families with adults who work in low-wage jobs, unemployed workers, and those with a fixed income. The SNAP Program assists about 72 percent of people who live in households with children. Nearly 25 percent of households with seniors and individuals with disabilities, are also assisted (Rosenbaum, 2013).

The state’s new approach to welfare replaced AFDC program with the California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. CalWORKs consist of a cash aid component and a CalWORKs Welfare-to-Work program. The new public assistance program did retain many of the eligibility standards, benefits, services and requirements of the former program. All an indication of the national change in objectives from welfare to work for CalWORKs recipients

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,

Jane has two young children, William age four and Sally age two, who will need nutritious food to help with their physical and mental development. One of the food assistance programs is called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Each month the participants receive money on debit card that can be used in most grocery stores. The debit card can usually not be used for items other than food. Another food assistance program is WIC (Women, Infants and Children). This program provides food assistance for pregnant women and children under the age of five. Either of these programs would allow for Jane to purchase the food that her family

Within a year of the economic downturn of 2008 roughly 1.1 million bankruptcy petitions were filed, a 32 percent over the corresponding year. Home foreclosures were up 81 percent and the unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent. The unemployment rate reached its highest level since the early 1980s (Bureau of Labor Statistics). The Census Bureau found that poverty increased in 2011 for the most populous areas in the country. Yet despite a general uptick in those in need of welfare, some states have been less successful in distributing welfare than others. In terms of access to healthcare, 46 states set the income eligibility limit for Medicaid/State CHIP at or above 200% of the federal poverty level for children up to 5. For mothers and children who do qualify, there are oftentimes a waitlist for up to five years. The aforementioned WIC program, developed to improve the nutrition of low-income infants and children, may not be properly publicized to families in need. In 2012, approximately seven million infants and toddlers and about two million pregnant women received WIC vouchers. This only represented about one in six of eligible infants and one in ten eligible women (NCCP, 2013).

W-2 Transition is for individuals with employment barriers; or unable to perform independent, self-sustaining work. Individuals participating in W-2 Transition receive a monthly grant of $608. Caretaker of an Infant is for custodial parents of an eight week old or less infant. These individuals do not have to participate in an employment position and receives a monthly payment of $673. Lastly, At Risk Pregnancy placements are available to women, who are unmarried and in their third trimester of pregnancy. They have to have an at risk pregnancy that is medically verified. These mothers to be receive a monthly payment of $673. Individuals that participate in W-2 have a time limit of 60 months (Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, 2014). This program uses a consumption approach due to the immediate need it provides to eligible participants. Participants receive their payment right after they are found eligible and continue to receive payments until there is a change in employment, in their case, or their time limit is up. Individuals participating in W-2, must be a at least 18 years of age and a custodial parent. Another requirement to be eligible for W-2 is to not have been fired or refused work within 180 days that precede the application. Income and other sources also affect eligibility. The total income for a family cannot exceed the poverty level set at 115%. Family assets cannot exceed $2,500; a family’s residence and

also known as WIC supplies almost fifty percent of the infant formula used in the US at no

The purpose of the WIC Program is to provide food assistance each month to the participants that are eligible. It helps pregnant women, new mothers, and young children eat well and stay healthy. WIC is also a short-term intervention program designed to influence lifetime nutrition and health behaviors in a targeted, high-risk population.

Many question this policy. Worrying, the majority of people who are applying for state benefits may not have the ability to cover the upfront expense. Therefore, needy families would go without food.

There are programs such as W.I.C. which stands for Woman, Infants, and Children. This group is where mothers that are under the poverty line can get help with the children’s nutrition information. They are also provided with tickets to get nutritious groceries at the store that they and their children may not get otherwise. They also talk about how children learn through play and how keeping your child active is heart healthy and helps prevent childhood

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).

Although the Food Stamp Program is universal and selective, it is a great program to help the poor. Patti Landers (2007) stated: to be qualified for Food Stamps, “households [members] must have gross and net incomes below 130% and 100% of the poverty threshold, respectively” (p. 1946). Another study from the Florida Food Stamp Program also stated that “Family groups must have income and assets below the program standards, which includes meeting the poverty guideline of the federal government” (Program Description). It also says that family must cooperate with Child Support Enforcement agencies and food stamp participants must be a citizen of the United States or a holder of a registration alien card and they must be a resident of the

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.

In a longitudinal study, 310 infant boys and their mothers from PCMP were recruited from the Allegheny Nutrition Supplement Clinics when the boys were between 6 and 17 months old. The socioeconomic status of the participants was an important factor in the study, with the sample of boys consisting of 53% European Americans, 36% African Americans, 6% of other decent and 5% biracial (Hyde et al., 2015). The sample of mothers consisted of a poor and low socioeconomic class with two thirds of the mothers having no more than 12 years of education and making $2,892 a