What do soy milk, Honey Bunches of Oats, grape juice and Wonder bread have in common?
They’re all listed among the Women Infants Children (WIC) Program’s allowable foods list. WIC, a federal program whose mission 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,” provides supplemental nutrition assistance to over nine million US women1, infants and young children; yet, despite its stated goal, many of the food choices available to WIC participants lack the vital nutrients they ought to provide to those at nutritional risk.
Honey Bunches of Oats, Life cereal and grape juice might fill bellies, it does very little to provide real nutrition to the very people who need it the most.
Moreover, many deeply nutritive foods are simply disallowed. Want organic milk? Think again. What about organic vegetables? Or fresh whole grain breads? Nope. Only Orowheat, Pepperidge Farms, Country Hearth, Sara Lee and Wonder breads make the cut. Juice can’t be purchased in glass containers (plastic containers and canned varieties are fine – the bisphenol A is a bonus). You can purchase peanut butter but not almonds (a source of vitamin E) and if you’re hoping to avoid genetically modified foods, you’re completely out of luck for the purchase of organic items – save fresh bananas – is off limits. And once your kid hits the age of two, they’re cut off from full-fat milk though multiple studies indicate children, especially at such a critical time, need fat for brain development2.
While Honey Bunches of Oats, Life cereal and grape juice might fill bellies, it does very little to provide real nutrition to the very people who need it the most. The program excludes valuable, nutrient-dense foods such as meat, liver, butter, yogurt and similar foods – meaning that recipients are encouraged to fill up on juices, low-fat conventional milk and prepackaged cereals.
Clearly, a better solution is needed.
Farmers Market Nutrition Program
In many states, WIC recipients may receive an added benefit: vouchers to use at their local farmers markets; however my state is one of the very few that does not participate in the Farmers Market Nutrition Program. That is, low-income Colorado women and their young children are at an added disadvantage by comparison to the WIC recipients residing in other states. While the program usually only provides between $10 and $30 per recipient for an entire market season – a pittance, really – it is something as it enables women, infants and children determined to be at nutritional risk to access wholesome, freshly picked and locally available produce.
A Community-building Solution
Colorado is not among the many states and state agencies to participate in the Farmers Market Nutrition Program; however, this created an opportunity for our community to solve a local problem by supporting the nutritional needs of those living, working and raising children locally. Our local farmers market, without relying on federal, state or local funds or even grants from private foundations, developed and implemented its own supplemental nutrition assistance program to provide wholesome, nutrient-dense foods to WIC recipients within our community.
Through our local program, WIC recipients could purchase farm fresh, raw milk from grass-fed cows, grass-fed meats, wild-caught fish, organic fruits and vegetables and other wholesome, unrefined foods teeming with natural vitamins and minerals – foods they would not, otherwise, have access to.
Funded through the markets own, quite limited budget and augmented by fundraising within the broader community, our market provided between $80 and $100 in vouchers for every WIC recipient within a twenty-mile radius. Moreover, the recipients of those vouchers were able to purchase fruits, vegetables, meats, milks, cheeses and fresh herbs as they saw fit – without the limitations imposed by the federal program. Because our market requires growers to be certified Organic or Certified Naturally Grown, every item purchased at the market by WIC recipients met or exceeded organically grown criteria, thus ensuring that when WIC recipients and others in our community chose to consume goods from the market they could do so without fear of consuming foods loaded with chemically based pesticides, fungicides and other agricultural inputs.
Sure, having worked extensively with our county’s WIC coordinator, our market chose to limit some of the items for which WIC vouchers could be redeemed. For example, recipients couldn’t purchase most value-added items (excluding fresh cheese) such as breads, jams, jellies, pastries or concessions with their vouchers, but they could purchase farm fresh, raw milk from grass-fed cows, grass-fed meats, wild-caught fish, organic fruits and vegetables and other wholesome, unrefined foods teeming with natural vitamins and minerals.
The program, piloted last summer in Crested Butte, succeeded in many ways: for low-income families, for farmers and for the market. Making the choice not to rely on external funding sources, our market held full control ensuring that should we wish to allow recipients to use market vouchers to pay for farm fresh milk through cow share agreements or grass-fed meats, they could.
Our growers benefited – reaching a new customer base that they’d been unable to successfully tap prior to the incentive of market vouchers. Local mothers and their children benefited by improved access to nutrient dense foods they could not otherwise afford and would not be able to access through the traditional supplemental nutrition assistance channels offered by the federally-funded WIC program. Most of all, the community benefited as the responsibility to support the nutritional needs of low-income residents rested upon the shoulders of every resident, thus inspiring families not needing nutritional assistance to financially support the program for their those families who did need assistance.
Action Belongs in Communities
Rather than wait for governmental programs to find and solve a need – and, perhaps, to do so inadequately. It’s up to individual communities to develop and enact solutions that address localized issues. The success of the Crested Butte Farmers Market WIC-to-Market program illustrates that such solutions, wisely enacted, can benefit local businesses, individuals and the community at large.
WIC Voucher for Crested Butte Farmers Market
1. WIC Fact Sheet (accessed March 22nd, 2010). 2. Infants, Toddlers Should Not Restrict Fat Intake. Science Daily. February 1998.
Great post, great information and great job you are all doing with the farmer’s market! I really enjoyed the picture of Crested Butte – would love to visit some day! Looks like a place for me.
P.S. I winged it in preparing my little piece of grass-fed brisket. Should be ready tomorrow. I hope I did it justice!
Very inspiring Jenny! You are doing such wonderful things for those families . . .
Best,
Sarah
Great article. Our WIC program here in Oregon has been improving more and more. White bread is no longer allowed. Organic veggies are! AND Farmer’s Market vouchers are issued every summer season. WIC has a way to go but they are heading in the right direction. So exciting!
You know, I’ve been trying to find a solution like this here. Tada!
I remember when my family was on WIC and just as we were beginning our transition to this lifestyl of GOOD food. I felt very limited and even guilty that I wasn’t happy with it. I felt like I had no other options and it was very frustrating and embarassing to shop with WIC vouchers. THing is, there ARE options- not always as grand as this but there are- it’s just that most people don’t know they’re there. Most people don’t even know that WIC is crap. I want to be a part of a change in good food option awareness in my state/area. I’ve begun to prepare mini intro workshops to offer free of charge so others can begin learning new skills and become more self sufficient. I hope to inspire others to do the same. For instance, there have been many workshops I’ve wanted to take- beekeeping, herbal crafting, fermenting, etc. but I just simply cannot afford to. A lot of people just can’t justify spending that kind of money. Why can’t we share these things and expect nothing in return? So many people donate money, what’s an hour or so of a person’s time.
Anyway, sorry-
Is there someone that I can get in touch with that could help me organize something similar here by sharing some tips/strategy?
Thanks
Thanks for this great article. It inspires me to help the local Oakland community when I am back in California. I’d like to know how you were able to contact the families in the WIC community since you weren’t officially WIC? That would be helpful info for expanding these efforts.
You really opened my eyes to the WIC program. I had no idea the moms on the program were so limited in their purchases. What a shame when people are dependent on a program that is, as you say, “filling their bellies” but with little or no nutritional value. I’m now inspired to find out what the WIC program entails in my area. Thanks Jenny!
Thank you so much for sharing this. That is exactly what we need to be doing to help each other —
Plants a seed in my mind…
I hope Barb is able to come up with a plan also — could you keep sharing these kinds of programs, and/or list sites that are doing so? Hope she stays in touch with her progress.
Jenny, you are amazing! “Action belongs in communities” – yes! Thanks for showing how this can be done. And WOW, what a gorgeous setting for your farm market.
Kelly
Great what you are doing in your community…would like to be there with my children;) I will never forget many years ago when approaching one of the WIC counselors with my many questions about the foods that vouchers were being given for to women and children. I basically shared that if they were actually interested in the health and well being of women/children why would they offer peanut butter that was filled with artificial fats etc. The poor lady did not know what to say…she stumbled over her self for answers and I never returned.
Love it! This is just fabulous. I hope this inspires more people to step up around the country.
Thanks for sharing!!
Amy
Awesome! Great job. I’m slowly beginning to believe that things like this can be done by just us. Congratulations! This is truly inspiring.
Wonderful article! I too believe that the responsiblitly of helping the underpriviledged should rest on the shoulders of the church and the community. It makes people better all around! This should not be a government thing, but a neighbors helping neighbors! I wish this would have happened when we had wic some years ago! Thanks for posting. Would love more info in how you got it rolling!
This is great, but how is it that the WIC moms can purchase raw milk? I thought there was a lot of legal issues involved in “selling” raw milk. In AK we have to find individuals with cows and buy the cow…not the milk. How are you CO folks doing it? Are the CO and Federal laws different? WPF is always running articles on how local raw dairy farmers are being arrested and shut down. So now I am confused.
Raw milk legislation is on a state-by-state basis. You can legally sell raw milk in stores in a few states (I know Washington state is one). There is currently no federal law forbidding the sale of raw milk.
Honestly, we can buy all sorts of other food raw and CHOOSE to eat it raw or undercooked if we’d like. Why not milk? It’s so insane.
Yup, it is a state-by-state regulation. In Maine raw milk is sold in several natural food stores as well as co-ops. We choose to buy ours directly from the farmer and have multiple options.
Bravo! Love this so much, especially that it’s community-based. Exactly what we need these days!
CA- does now allow organic fruits and veggie- they don’t care how you spend your whole $6 per month- and whole grain bread products only (corn tortillas, whole wheat bread, some steel cut oats ect..) But the program is still sorely lacking in really nutritious offerings (yuck-jiffy peanut butter).
Wow, this is wonderful! Thanks for sharing this, and yes please share how to start one, and how to contribute to what you are doing there in CB. It would be wonderful to see WIC dismantled because the private sector was filling the need. And remember, we can all play a part on an individual level – we know or can find someone in need to help, no formal organization needed!
Blessings.
Wow, I was just talking with my friend about this the other day! I am a mother of 7 month old twins and trying to transition over to eating “GOOD food”. The problem is, I rely on WIC for a lot of my purchases.
I have found a source for affordable grass-fed beef (and chicken, pork, etc.) and truly free-range/pastured eggs, thank God. 
I really wish that WIC would allow farmer’s market vouchers or organic milk… or even steel-cut oats instead of instant only. We buy very few processed foods, and I am growing a huge garden this summer so that I can can and freeze. I do make my own bread and cloth diaper my children, so a lot of money is saved there. I believe that the problem is the lack of education, on WIC’s part and the community’s. I am going to talk to them about this at my next “check-in”, but I don’t know if it’ll get anything done.
Why is soy milk bad?
MI does allow organic veggies and fruit. They don’t care which veggies or fruit you buy either as long as its within the allowed dollar amount.
In Denver on Sante Fe Drive, there’s the Urban Homesteading. Raw goat and cow’s milk, grass-fed meats, pastured chicken eggs, raw cheeses etc. And you know what’s fabulous? Food stamps are accepted! I support any organization that allows its low-income people to have nourishing foods.
Wow…I had no idea how the WIC program worked until now. I always thought it was like food stamps, where you had a set amount to spend on supplemental food. I took a look at my state’s (Maine) list of approved foods – holy crap! – Frosted Shredded Wheat is OK, peanut butter w/ hydrogenated oils too, and 64 ounce bottles of Juicy Juice (but no fresh OJ). Nothing organic. I get that it costs (somewhat) more for most organic items, but this is crazy.
“While Honey Bunches of Oats, Life cereal and grape juice might fill bellies, it does very little to provide real nutrition to the very people who need it the most.”
As a very frustrated new participant in the WIC program, I know that filling bellies is all they’re interested in. Their only measure of health for a pregnant woman is how much weight she gains. I suppose that in providing sugary cereals, plastic-protected and pasteurized juices, and breads manufactured with high fructose corn syrup, the program has more chances for success by their standards. My only consolation is that Colorado does allow organic fruits and vegetables. Now if I could find a source for raw milk that was less than an hour away!
To Teela who asked what’s wrong with soy milk. check out this webpage
http://www.westonaprice.org/soy-alert.html
I admire that your farmers market is giving vouchers to WIC recipients, but what about those of us who could get WIC but choose not to because “they fill the bellies without providing nutrition?” Perhaps you should consider giving vouchers to people who are on WIC or Food Stamps, because most of the time those on WIC are on food stamps, (or qualify to be on food stamps) but the opposite is not true.
Makes me wish I could move to Crested Butte!
Roxanne
That’s not a viable option for us at this time because there’s no infrastructure set up to identify low-income residents who qualify for, but refuse WIC enrollment. There’s not a realistic way to verify income and qualifications of potential recipients; that said, the market’s alliance with the local WIC office has increased enrollment in the program.
Just on a side note, our WIC office made it clear to us that the WIC vouchers are not supposed to be the only food source available. It’s supposed to be… sort of a safety net, so to speak. Especially for those of us on food stamps who are not restricted in what we buy with that money, WIC is supposed to be a backup and additional support IN ADDITION TO healthy foods purchased and prepared at home.
Which isn’t to say that it doesn’t irritate me that I can’t use my WIC checks to buy organic eggs (or any eggs except plain white, actually) or anything.
Then again, we can buy organic veggies with ours, if we’re so inclined (although $16 doesn’t go far in the organic department of the supermarket). And the cereal selection seems more limited than yours… Honey Bunches of Oats? If only we were so lucky. It’s plain corn flakes for us!
What a wonderful idea, Jenny, way to go! You are truly a blessing to your community and beyond.
That is awesome! I knew something like this could work without the federal government’s involvement because I believe that our country is filled with good people who truly want to help each other.
What a beautiful article! Thanks for sharing! I read last summer that some local farmer’s markets here in Central Florida were gearing up to take food stamps – they have to buy special equipment to use the tickets and did so out of their own pockets in order to make local, real food more accessible. Kudos to all who look out for the less fortunate!
Great Job! We need to hear these stories more. So many amazing programs to help those in need really come from private citizens and corporations and not the Government. I wonder why these stories aren’t told in the main stream media every day.
I have been on WIC in Georgia. I have two small children. I have been looking a lot into raw foods, organic foods, homemade foods, and just eating a traditional diet in general. I was wondering should I even continue going to my clinic, waiting for hours, to pick up vouchers? I only get $10 and my son who will be two in a few days only gets $6 in fruits or vegetables. I guess he’ll be switched over to low-fat conventional milk. We’re not allowed anything organic here with the exception that certain stores have organic canned vegetables, but I wonder if that’s even healthy. I’ve been very overwhelmed with all the heath websites, blogs, etc. Could anyone offer me some advice? Thank you.
I was just enrolled in WIC today and I knew they had introudced organic items, but the sparsity is unreal. I unfortunately asked only for vouchers that allowed me to purchase items I knew were GMO free. I was really disheartened with the WIC program, although grateful for what they do, very saddened. Eggs, milk and juices must be NON organic. Breakfast cereals are all from large companies that are known to contain GMO’s. The soy milk is in fact from organic soy beans but it is not the carrageenan-free soy milk (which is available for a few cents more). I live in San Diego, CA. I feel there is need for change in this program ASAP.