Mothers who depend on food from WIC program, Women with Infant Children, will be shopping for a new menu as WIC instates some major changes. KPBS Reporter Tom Fudge has more.
The new WIC food package will be in place October first, and it's meant create healthier diets. Half of the cereals on the WIC food list will be whole grain. For the first time, WIC is offering coupons that parents can use to purchase any kind of fruit or vegetable. Breast feeding will be encouraged. WIC will not routinely provide infant formula during a baby's first month. Linnea Sallack is chief of the California's WIC nutrician program. She says the old food list emphasizes dairy products. And it reflects a time when problems included underweight and undernourished children.
"Problems that have really changed dramatically because now we face over-nutrician with overweight and obesity being among our biggest problems," she says.
The program serves families with children under five. Six out of ten infants in California get food through WIC. Tom Fudge, KPBS news.
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