WIC Gives Families a Sense of Relief Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

WIC Provides Families with Essesntial Support During Difficult Times

We’ve spoken with families from California to Vermont who told us how the WIC program has enabled them to ensure their kids have enough healthy food on a lower budget, providing essential support, particularly during difficult times. Here are their stories:

Angelique Schanbeck and Rebecca Gross

Angelique Schanbeck chats with her friend Rebecca Gross about raising her three young children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Angelique’s oldest—five-year-old Madison—has autism and is taking remote school classes. Her family received support from the WIC program and gave her the security of affording the nutritious foods they need to live healthy.

Diane Chamberlain and Bo-Yee Poon

Bo-Yee Poon tells Diane Chamberlain about getting WIC benefits after returning from a 16-year stay in China during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure they had healthy foods to eat, Diane delivered WIC groceries to Bo-Yee and her children, and the two women have become good friends.

Meg and Jocelyn York

Spouses Meg and Jocelyn York, discuss learning about the opportunity of applying and qualifying for WIC benefits as a middle-income family, providing great relief as they manage their finances. The couple also shares how WIC taught them healthy ways to feed their toddler and newborn on a lower budget as the COVID-19 lockdown began in Vermont.

Shelly Lanier and Tracy Lasserre

Shelly Lanier tells her best friend Tracy Lasserre about becoming a mom at age 41 and how WIC services have helped her adjust to motherhood. She describes how WIC’s prenatal classes taught her essential lessons about nutrition so that she could make sure both she and her baby stayed healthy.

How to Ensure WIC Can Continue to Meet Families’ Needs

These and many other stories from families across the country confirm that WIC is a vital resource that keeps millions of moms and kids from experiencing hunger. But the need is great and far from met. Recently, Jamie Bussel, senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), spoke with Brian Dittmeier, senior public policy counsel at the National WIC Association, about a new report that documents how the pandemic has affected WIC, how WIC has adapted to continue serving its participants, and what additional supports and resources are still needed to ensure that the program can meet the needs of families today and going forward.

WIC is one of our country’s most vital programs, not just for the number of families it serves, but for the impact it has.