Lucia Graves says that her family can afford to eat healthier due to WIC’s benefits for her daughter and Stepdrarat.
Courtesy of Lucia Graves
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Courtesy of Lucia Graves
The federal closure won the impact benefits of the main programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. But one of the first things that could be beaten is the nutritional assistance that many pregnant women and new parents branch.
It is crucial for Lucia Graves, who discovered that she was pregnant in March 2020, a few days before the world was closed for Covid-19 pandemic. She was a waitress at that time and in her own financial.
“So here I am like,” Oh my God. I have this baby on the way, and now I have no job, “she says.
Graves lives in Lebanon, NH, had complications of pregnancy, her daughter was born a few months before, and after breastfeeding only a short time, her milk dried up. It was a great relief when a social worker said that serious was eligible for the Special Supplementary Nutrition Program for women, babies and children, which is known as WIC.
“They were able to cover the baby formula, which is huge,” she says. “They cool us like 10 or 12 cans each [month]. That still didn’t cover everything my son needed, but covered a lot. “
WIC also provides breastfeeding support, nutritional advice and attends children up to 5 years. That is Almost 7 million people in everythingincluding almost half or all babies born in the United States
Serious is now committed, and his fiance also has a little daughter. Both girls are eligible for $ 26 per months for fruits and vegetables, in addition to a list of groceries approved by WIC. If that ends, she would be more difficult to eat healthier and get to the end of the month.
“Milk prices, egg prices, bread prices. All these things are, such as astronomical,” she says. “So it would be great success for us.”
That blow could be a lot of son who in the last closure of the government, in 2018. That is because this falls just at the beginning of the federal fiscal year. Since Congress has not yet approved a new budget, there is no new money for agencies to spend.
“We have a really cut track here before reaching a true crisis in program operations,” says Nell Menefee-Libey of the Wic National Association. She calculates that track of approximately two weeks.
The money to keep things in operation for so long will come from a contingency fund, which is left with the budget last year and the reimbursements of children’s formula companies, she says. Then the states would have to fill the void. “And there will also be some variation between the states, because they can have different amounts of available resources,” she says.
The day before closing Approved Colorado Legisals $ 7.5 million to finance WIC in your state. The last time the government closed, the states received reimbursements for that expense.
Research Wic improves the results of pregnancy and childbirth, Child development And your life diet, all of which reduces medical care costs. But if the closure crawls, Menefee-Libey says that some WIC offices will have to classify. That will mean prioritizing pregnant women and breastfeeding, and rejecting children of preschool age.
“If people are rejected, you don’t recover them,” she says. “That is the opportunity to reach the duration of your family in really critical and vulnerable life stages. And rejecting someone means losing an opportunity for a healthy future for a child.”
Beyond WIC, the country’s largest food aid program, the complementary nutritional assistance program or SNAP, is in a better form of money. This is because the debit cards that people use to buy food are loaded one month in advance.
“Its benefits will be there for October. And whatever eligible you must feel free to run,” says Gina Plata-Nino of the Food Research and Action Center.
Food banks are also open and preparing to obtain more demand from federal contractors and employees who are now licensed or forced to work without pay.
Duration The last closure, “we had people in costumes waiting in food banks,” says Plata-Neino. “Because there was no money, and people had to pay their career.”
She expects her to win that this time.