There couldn’t be a worse time to cut food aid for women and children

“We’re going to go ahead and close the clinics today at 5 o’clock.”

In 2013, faced with a sudden loss of funding due to a federal government shutdown, the director of Utah’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program announced that the state could no longer accept new participants. Individuals and families seeking out the critically important services that WIC provides — food assistance, breastfeeding support, health screenings and nutrition education — would have to look elsewhere to get them. 

Fortunately, the crisis was averted when Utah received emergency funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to keep the program running until the shutdown ended and normal operations resumed. But a decade later, WIC is once again facing a significant funding shortfall that could soon prevent it from providing assistance to its rapidly expanding caseload. 

As advocates for food security and improved maternal and child health, we urge Congress to act immediately and — rather than unconscionably allowing WIC to atrophy — ensure the program has the resources it needs to support all current and prospective participants.   

WIC serves approximately 6.7 million women and young children — including about half of all infants born in the United States. Nearly two-thirds of program participants have incomes below 100 percent of the federal poverty line. All participants are at “nutritional risk,” which can include a variety of medical conditions or dietary deficiencies that adversely affect health or make it harder to maintain a healthy diet without support. 

Given the population it serves, it is essential that WIC fulfills its mission — and the evidence over nearly 50 years of operation clearly shows the tremendous impact on participants’ lives and health. 

WIC participation lowers the risk of infant mortality and premature birth, helps with proper brain development for young children that can set the stage for longer-term academic success and ensures families have increased access to healthcare services such as well-child visits and pediatric screenings. Following nutrition standard updates to the WIC food package in 2009, participants reported greater access to and more purchases of healthier foods, and obesity rates among children ages 2 to 4 on WIC declined nationwide. And few programs can match its economic impact; every $1 in federal WIC spending yields an average savings of $2.48, thanks to fewer preterm births and related reductions in healthcare costs. 

We believe policymakers should build on this record of success. Over the past few years, Congress increased program funding, expanded cash vouchers for fruits and vegetables and made it easier for families to sign up for and receive benefits. The changes worked as intended to help WIC keep pace with growing demand; the Biden administration’s new request for $1.4 billion in additional funding is the proper next step to help WIC serve an even higher projected caseload in fiscal year 2024. Sufficient funding today and in the future will help ensure WIC is a pillar of our safety net now and for generations to come. 

Yet, some in Congress are threatening to turn their backs on WIC and the people who depend on it. Despite a large gap between WIC eligibility and participation at current funding levels, and inflation causing a recent spike in food costs, pending appropriations bills propose draconian cuts to WIC that would keep hundreds of thousands of people from accessing the program. 

Cuts of this magnitude would likely force states to impose wait lists for prospective participants — a drastic step not seen for the past 30 years. Worse still would be a prolonged government shutdown, which would leave millions in the lurch if state WIC offices close and benefits are no longer distributed.

WIC needs sustained investment, not systematic disinvestment. We encourage Congress to follow the lead of USDA, which is using its authority to implement a series of smart changes to WIC, such as expanding the ability to use benefits online and further updating nutrition standards for the food package. In addition to stepping up with more funds, Congress should also pass legislation that would allow participants to stay on the program for longer periods of time and make pandemic-era flexibilities like remote registration permanent. 

Members of Congress face many hard decisions, but this isn’t one of them. When it comes to WIC, our message to lawmakers is simple: Keep the doors open and the lights on. 

Kate Franken is the board chair of the National WIC Association (@NatWICAssoc). Eric Mitchell is the executive director of the Alliance to End Hunger (@toendHunger). Heather Taylor is the managing director of Bread for the World (@bread4theworld).