WIC..pay for each item separately?

[Anonymous]

I forgot about the tuna.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After reading the two posts of former WIC participants, I think that they should make members of Congress buy their food with WIC checks for a week and then re-think the program. It's great that there's assistance for those who need it, but the whole process of getting and using the assistance seems so lacking in dignity. There must be a better way.

Well, WIC differs from food stamps in that WIC is designed specifically to remedy nutritional deficits in pregnant moms, infants, and young children. This is why the certification and recertification process is somewhat cumbersome, because the health of the participants must be measured and participants must be at nutritional risk to participate (but almost everyone is who meets the income qualifications).

This is also why the WIC checks are so specific and so cumbersome to shop with. They are designed not to supplement income, but to give participants access to specific types of nutrition.

I am one of the WIC posters (the one with the Milk Allergy). While the original point of WIC is to help supplement diets and is supposed to be for people with nutritional deficients that is not the case. You do not need to be at a nutritional risk to participate but if the WIC program runs out of money those at risk will not lose benefits.

Each time you go in to get new checks you have to sit though a class on nutrition, every 3 months is a different "theme" and example would be breakfast. They ask you what you ate for breakfast and they give you examples of what would be considered a good breakfast. Most people only have to go every 3 months to get new checks but since I was on a special formula I had to sit though the same "class" 3 times. Then you get your checks with

4 gallons of milk
2 pounds of cheese
5 cans of frozen juice
3 cartons of eggs
a few boxes of cereal
Peanut Butter
baby cereal
and the formula


They have no option for organic food, or really any substitutes. It seems silly that obesity is such a problem with low income families and all the government gives you is fatty foods. although recently they added Fruits and Vegetable to the list so it is a little better.

Also, They don't start giving you baby cereal until 6 months but my Doctor had said it was ok at 3 months (to help with spitting up) but the time my DS was 6 months he was on fruits and veggie baby food ( which WIC does not recommend until 9 months) so every month they tell me don't give your baby solids yet or only give them this much and When I said that my pediatrician had given me the OK they were like "thats not good".

Now that I no longer need the Formula I don't even bother with WIC its not worth the 30 or so dollars worth of cheese, to go though the 1-2 hours spent in the WIC office.

There's a new WIC foods package, so this information is outdated. The package has a greater emphasis on fruits and vegetables. Check out: http://dchealth.dc.gov/doh/cwp/view,A,1371,Q,582032.asp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the "ugh" poster and I stand corrected. Not sure what got into me. Just cranky I guess.

To the PP who was on WIC...I sincerely wish you the best. And, it is ridicoulous that the gov't runs a much-needed program like WIC that way! Ignore a-holes like me and go back on WIC if you need. Forget the judgmental people. Sorry for your recent luck

This is awesome. This my fantasy of how people would treat each other IRL when they realize the other person's position.

Le sigh.

Yay! I'm the Pollyanna who started the Campaign to make DCUM a nicer place, and this warms my heart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lincoln Navigator!?!?!?
That annoys me.
I don't have a Lincoln Navigator - and I would love one. Maybe if I cheated the system, I too could afford one.

UGH

No shit, this pisses me off beyond belief

[Anonymous]

Cheating the system... how?

My sister was 8 months pregnant, had a 2 year old and a 5 year old, and was a SAHM when her husband, a government lawyer who had just started his new job (at trainee pay for 6 months) was about to be laid off due to budget problems. At the last minute they found the money to hire him and some other lawyers, but only part time. Well part time trainee salary, even for a lawyer, was minimal enough that my pregnant sister and her kids qualified for WIC and they got some free milk, cheese and eggs. WOW! The hassles they had to go through -- people were nice enough, but the process was demeaning to her and the other "cleints"of the program -- asi fthey were idiots, when all they were, was poor.

All for some $40 worth of free dairy products. There's no way anyone could use this assistance to get rich and buy an expensive car.

[Anonymous]

"It was embarrassing enough that I am advertising that I am on WIC I am fully aware of the groins of the people behind me "

The groins? LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends. I havent been on it in around 6 months. I stopped going because, even though we qualify I hate the whole experience. But when I was going they broke it down into checks for each person on the program and then further into categories: I had checks for food items as a nursing mother until DS was 12 months, then I had milk on a separate check. Then DS got checks with food on it, and separate checks for his milk. THEN DD got checks with her food allotment and separate checks with milk.

And to make it even more fun, when DD was an infant, she stopped nursing at 6 months. So it was my checks, DS's and then DD got separate checks just for formula and then separate checks with just Baby cereal, and another set of checks just with baby juice.

All that on top of the aggravating and dehumanizing experience I had every frakking time I had to go to the WIC center to recertify for checks and I said screw it. My husband doesn't understand, but then he never had the pleasure of going with me.

So, you deny your children the nourishment the need because of your false pride? Humility is a lesson most of us have to learn in life and it seems that you are still arrogant and too good to use services that will give your children food. Don't worry, one way or another, you will learn humility.

[Anonymous]

Many low income people need the nutrition lessons. I hear a lot of bitching from low income but well educated moms about how WIC doesn't cover organic items, etc etc. Well, it wasn't meant to. WIC was always meant to cater to moms who would do things like water down formula or give their kids sugary cereals or soda instead of healthy cereals and real juice.

In other words, it's not meant for the low income hipster demographic, and I think it does a damn fine job of what it is supposed to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many low income people need the nutrition lessons. I hear a lot of bitching from low income but well educated moms about how WIC doesn't cover organic items, etc etc. Well, it wasn't meant to. WIC was always meant to cater to moms who would do things like water down formula or give their kids sugary cereals or soda instead of healthy cereals and real juice.

In other words, it's not meant for the low income hipster demographic, and I think it does a damn fine job of what it is supposed to do.

Sources, please?

[Anonymous]

You could also argue that WIC was designed to prioritize having people purchase those things that the federal government subsidizes, namely dairy and eggs.

I don't think it's unreasonable to question why some products are allowed and not others. It would seem like having approved product categories, with limited exclusions (for things like sugar fruit drinks or particular sugary cereals) would be a better system that would allow for people to choose organic if they wanted to. The disparity in prices means that if you're choosing organic, you're probably not getting the target volume as compared to the commercially-produced items, and that would be something that would be tricky to reconcile with the underlying WIC principle of minimizing the flexibility of the consumer as much as possible, out of the belief that poor women need to be told what and when and how much to buy to feed their kids.

There's all kinds of underlying cultural assumptions built into the way federal aid programs are structured (particularly food ones); a good review of how they've changed through the 20th century is Katz's The Undeserving Poor.

[Anonymous]

I remember several years ago when my housekeeper's unmarried teenage daughter got pregnant and I helped them fill out the WIC forms because their English wasn't good enough.

I remember with shame how irritated I felt on so many levels.

I think WIC is a great program that helps the neediest and most innocent -- babies and children. But it's easy to feel judgmental about it, and hard to get over that sometimes.

[Anonymous]

*"There are" that last sentence should read; I rewrote and missed it.

[Anonymous]

I have no problem with the OP being baffled or annoyed or questioning about the Lincoln Navigator. If someone needs WIC then they need to turn that monster in for a gas sipping sedan. She could get more in gas savings than she benefits from WIC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends. I havent been on it in around 6 months. I stopped going because, even though we qualify I hate the whole experience. But when I was going they broke it down into checks for each person on the program and then further into categories: I had checks for food items as a nursing mother until DS was 12 months, then I had milk on a separate check. Then DS got checks with food on it, and separate checks for his milk. THEN DD got checks with her food allotment and separate checks with milk.

And to make it even more fun, when DD was an infant, she stopped nursing at 6 months. So it was my checks, DS's and then DD got separate checks just for formula and then separate checks with just Baby cereal, and another set of checks just with baby juice.

All that on top of the aggravating and dehumanizing experience I had every frakking time I had to go to the WIC center to recertify for checks and I said screw it. My husband doesn't understand, but then he never had the pleasure of going with me.

So, you deny your children the nourishment the need because of your false pride? Humility is a lesson most of us have to learn in life and it seems that you are still arrogant and too good to use services that will give your children food. Don't worry, one way or another, you will learn humility.

You know what? Screw you. It's called having a budget, cutting coupons, buying things off brand and on sale, foregoing updating my wardrobe except to get rid of frumpy maternity crap, living with dents on my car because who cares how it looks as long as it runs well, foregoing replacing things that were destroyed in a recent basement flood unless they were absolutely necessary, signing my kids up for medicare - another head bangingly frustrating process - since it would cost $500 more than we can afford to put them on DH's employer's insurance .... I could go on. You don't know me or the first thing about my family, so I'd appreciate you not judging or lecturing me about how to raise my children. Be assured that my children want for nothing and I do indeed know the meanings of the words Humility, Economy and none of the 3 posts I've made to this thread have been to invite anyone's pity or anything at my circumstances. My point was to illustrate that not everyone is trying to game the system, and that if they are, they must have the patience of Job. It's not as easy as showing up somewhere, sticking your hand out, and saying *Where the free shit at?*

[Anonymous]

When I had WIC I don't remember it being that difficult. Some grocery stores have a lot of WIC customers so they are used to it and everything is done very quickly.
It is embarrassing to be on a program like that because you know people look down on you. I didn't care though. I lost everything right before I had my daughter.
I was 8 months pregnant and was lucky to find food for that day. Our electricity and water was shut off. I didn't apply for food stamps but I did have Medicaid and WIC.
Those times definitely taught me a lot about not judging peoples circumstances. You just never know.
I had a friend that loaned me his Jeep for two years during this time. So yes, I walked out of the store and got into a Jeep Grand Cherokee. But home was a room in a friends basement (for three of us). I had no phone, no clothes (I wore one pair of pants my entire pregnancy), nothing. You ladies are all to old not to know to stop making assumptions.