For as long as we can remember, many people have been experiencing hardships and worries, with little to no income being one of the largest. In the U.S there are a few programs that can help populations facing these difficulties obtain imperitive things they need. One of these benificial programs is WIC. WIC stands for Women, Infants and Children; and is a special supplemental nutrition program that targets nutritionally at risk mothers infants and children, due to low income. The program helps aid families in the effort to provide nutritious foods, information and counseling on healthy eating, and to provide referrels to other healthcare and government benifit programs like welfare and social services. (Food and Nutrition service, 2013)
The history of WIC dates back to the 1960s when many americans were suffering from malnutrition due to low income. In 1969 the nations concern with malnutrition, especially in mothers and children had greatly increased and the USDA established a commodity supplemental food program that would benifit pregnant women, infants and children. the legistlation formerly authorized the special supplemental food program as a 2 year pilot program in 1972 by an ammendement to the Child Nutrition act of 1966, and in 1975 WIC was established as a permanent program. (Oliveira, Racine, Olmsted, & Ghelfi, 2002)
The purpose of the WIC, as stated before is to improve the health of nutritionally at risk women infants and children through adequate nutritional help. According the the USDA Wic has improved birth outcomes with longer pregnancies, higher birth weights, lower infant mortalities, and more mothers receiving prenatal care. Also the improvement of savi...
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...e volunteer opportuities consist of answering phones, filing chats, greeting wic participants, and reading and conducting activities for children while their parents are occupied. The requirements include being able to read and write, ability to work well with others, enjoy working with families and children receiving wic and sensitivity to cultural diversity. (Wic office, 2014). The benifits of volunteers are lower administration costs, stretching resoures, and increasing the quality and quantity of the services that re provides to participants.
Furthermore the community greatly benifits from Wic in that participants are healthier with the nutritional assistance and healthcare referrels that the program supplies. There are also a large amount of savings in healthcare costs as a result of prenatal and postpardum care for mothers which makes for healthier babies.
Women, Infants and Children (WIC) was established “ 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.” In this paper one will weigh the pros and cons, review the information given and come to an overall opinion of the program.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is a federally funded program administered by the Food and Nutrition Service under the United States Department of Agriculture. Each state receives a grant to pay for WIC foods, administrative costs, nutrition education, and breastfeeding promotion and support. In 2009 WIC served approximately 9.3 million people per month. WIC services are available for nutritionally at risk, income qualified pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age five. The WIC program provides nutrient-dense supplemental foods, nutrition education, and health care referrals to those who qualify. The mission of WIC is “To safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age five who at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.” (USDA)
In the year 2015, around 40 million U.S. citizens were food insecure (Randall para. 3). Food insecurity can be defined in paragraph 3 by “[having] difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources. This 12.7% of American citizens also contains another group - children. Aged 10-17, 6.8 million adolescents struggle with a food insecurity. There have been several years of cuts to the social programs designed to help these people, along with the Great Recession continuing to leave an impact on the U.S. economy (para. 6). Under the Obama administration, $8.6 billion was cut from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps. From 1993-2001 under the Clinton administration, former President Bill Clinton’s administration “gutted the welfare system” (para. 15). Because of these budget cuts, the families who rely on food assistance from the government have been allotted less throughout the years. From a sociological perspective, the concepts of sociological imagination, class stratification, and social location are in effect when it comes to child hunger in the United States. Being hungry is an issue larger than any one individual can control.
Food insecurity does not discriminate; it reaches many segments of society (Whitney, DeBruyne, Pinna, & Rolfes, 2007). Even through closely related to poverty, not all that have food insecurities are in poverty. Often it is the working poor that are hit the hardest. The working poor are a group that despite having a job, there income is too low to meet their need or that of their family. Most of the working poor (56%) live in families with children, so that the poverty of these workers affects many others as well (Problems Facing the Working Poor, Kim 1999). Many lower to middle class families will temporarily struggle with food insecurity at various times during the year. For these families government assistance may not immediately available. Appling for Supplemental Nutrition Assistanc...
Food insecurity is an issue faced by millions of Americans every day, and the biggest group affected by this is working families with children. Food insecurity is so big that the United States government has now recognized it and provided a definition for it. The United States government has defined food insecurity as “a household level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food” (USDA.gov). Food banks and anti-hunger advocates agree that some of the causes of food insecurity are stagnant wages, increase in housing costs, unemployment, and inflation of the cost of food. These factors have caused food banks to see a change in the groups of people needing assistance. Doug O’Brien, director of public policy and research at Chicago-based Second Harvest says “’we’ve seen a real shift in who we serve. A decade ago, it was almost always homeless, single men and chronic substance abusers. Now we have children and working families at soup kitchens’” (Koch). These families that are feeling the effects of food insecurity will not be only ones affected by it, but all of America. Studies have shown that there is a link between food security, performance in the classroom, and obesity. If this issue is not faced head on, America will have a generation of children not fully prepared for the workforce and high health insurance rates due to obesity health issues.
In order to determine the prevalence of households that are food insecure, “The Food Security Supplement is administered annually to about 45,000 households as part of the monthly, nationally representative Current Population Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The supplement has been conducted annually since 1995.” (Health Indicators Warehouse, 2013). The survey was developed by the USDA in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control, and asks participants questions about their confiden...
According to Dolgoff and Feldstein (2003), “the needs and goals of the Food Stamp Program are to alleviate hunger and malnutrition by enabling low-income households to buy a nutritious adequate diet” (p. 132). The program also improved the market for local merchants to produce food for eligible low-income households and other agencies such as the School Lunch Program which safeguard the health and wel...
“Breastfeeding is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants; it is also an integral part of the reproductive process with important implications for the health of mothers” Statement taken from the world health organization publication on the nutrition of exclusive breastfeeding.
As a consequence, low-income households suffer more health problems due to the lack of income. "Despite social assistance programs such as TANF, Women, Infants and children (WIC), food stamps, and Meals on Wheels, malnutrition exists primary among the old and the young in the United States". The American health care system which is based on ability to pay is not adequate to provide immediate services to poor people. Among the common health problems associated with children in poverty include asthma, lead poisoning and vision deficiency. (Koppelman and Goodhart, 2007)
What is WIC? Where does WIC originate from? WIC originally started as Special Supplemental Nutritional Program to protect the health of low-income woman, infants, and children up to the age of 5 who are at risk for poor nutrition. WIC was created as a two year program in 1972 by an amendment to the Child Nutrition Act of 1966. The program was geared to improve the health of pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, infants and children in response to growing concerns over malnutrition among many poverty-stricken mothers and young children. In 1974 WIC was functioning in 45 States, the first location was opened in Kentucky in January 1974. In 1975 WIC was established as a permanent program by legislation P.L. 94-105. The eligibility was also extended to non-breastfeeding women and children up to the age 5, before this extension WIC was providing services to breastfeeding mothers and children up to the age of 4. In 1978 legislation added new elements to the program: nutrition education must be provided, the supplemental foods should contain nutrients found lacking in the target population, and have relatively low levels of fat, sugar, and salt, and states needed to coordinate referrals to social services including immunization, alcohol and drug abuse prevention, child abuse counseling, and family planning. In 1992 WIC introduced an enhanced food package just for breastfeeding mothers to further promote breastfeeding. WIC had also created two programs from “Loving Sup...
Department of Agriculture estimated that 17 million of US households in America were food insecure. This means that the households a difficult time during the course of the year providing enough food for all their family members due to a lack of resources. Fortunately, there are food distribution programs that aid individuals and households with the food insecurities such Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), as well as Foodbanks around the united states. SNAP formally known as the Food Stamp Program, SNAP provides help to 46 million people each year. WIC is a supplemental nutrition program that woman who qualify receive when pregnant, this benefit is limited from child’s birth up to up to 5 years after their child is born. Mother receives milk for the baby as well as nutritious items for herself like milk, cheese, cereals, juices, and vegetables. Foodbanks are also located all over America; however, struggle with keeping up with the increase of those in need., Twelve states exhibited statistically significantly higher household food-insecurity rates than the U.S. national average 2013-2015 13.7
The Women, Infant and children (WIC) program is a supplemental food program that benefits millions of women who are pregnant, lactating/breastfeeding, post-partum, infants who are under one year of age and children who are under five years of age who are also at a nutritional risk and/or who have a low income. This program offers nutritional advice for mothers who have any questions along the way, helps with getting them the health screenings needed and all around any health questions that need answered (Kane 1990).
Childhood hunger problem occurs everywhere in this world and we people need to start helping these children if we have the ability to improve the issue.
2. Orogastric: This route is used when NG is contraindicated, and to prevent sinusitis. It is tolerated well by the sedated patients but not in awake patients.
Alaimo, K., Olson, C. M., Frongillo, E. A., & Briefel, R. R. (2001). Food insufficiency, family income, and