 After 30 years of sticking to the same diet of food staples, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will soon include fruits, vegetables and other healthful additions to the food packages offered to women and children in need. Thanks to a rule change earlier this month, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) will soon provide vouchers for fresh produce. A win for children's advocates everywhere, the historic change will allow almost half the population of pregnant women and young children in the U.S. to more easily and cheaply buy fruits and vegetables. "We are thrilled to be part of WIC's transformation," said Judy Gomez of the PHFE-WIC Program in Los Angeles. "We have waited a long time for these changes."
Created in 1974, the WIC program was established to ensure that low-income pregnant women, postpartum mothers and children up to 5-years-old receive proper nutrition at critical stages of growth. WIC offers nutrition education, breastfeeding support and vouchers for foods with nutrients considered lacking in the diets of WIC's target population. Qualified participants are usually pregnant women or parents with an income less than 185 percent of the federal poverty level.
As knowledge about nutrition has gotten more sophisticated, the WIC food packages have come to seem out-dated and lacking. Following the American Academy of Pediatrics's guidelines, WIC nutrition counselors have been encouraging participants to eat and feed their children more fruits and vegetables, but continue to provide them with vouchers that don't support that message.
In an effort to align the WIC food packages with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the USDA commissioned the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science to provide recommendations about possible changes. Their report published in 2005, WIC Food Packages: Time for a Change, led to a proposed rule changing the food packages to include more healthful foods. With lots of positive input from the community, the proposed rule led to the December 6th adoption of an interim final rule, published in the Federal Register, a daily publication containing public notices from government agencies.
The interim final rule will change the contents of the food package to include $10-monthly vouchers for fruits and vegetables for breastfeeding women, $8 vouchers for pregnant women and partially breastfeeding mothers, and $6 vouchers for fruits and vegetables for children. States will have 18 months to implement the new rule.
"Implementation of the rule will require coordination with food manufacturers and distributors, grocers, our local programs and many others," said Michele van Eyken, deputy chief of nutrition services at the California WIC Program, administered by the state Department of Public Health. "We will be in the planning stages for a while, but are very excited about the changes."
To make the change cost effective, the new rule also calls for a reduction in the amounts of other foods historically provided by the program, including milk, cheese and eggs. While this has been unwelcome news for some, the change will give a boost to California growers of specialty crops, that is, fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as the diets of California's young families.
Click here to learn more about the interim final rule. |
