WIC vouchers top half mil

Whitman County passed out over half a million dollars through the Women Infants and Children program in 2008, according to a recent county report.

About 1,360 clients use the WIC voucher coupons in the county, with most clients living in Pullman. Most clients use their vouchers at grocery stores in Pullman, Colfax and Tekoa.

Roughly 43 percent of the infants born in Whitman County are fed on WIC supplies, said Fran Martin, director of the county’s public health department.

WIC is a federal USDA program that gives out food vouchers to low-income families that qualify under financial guidelines, as food for pregnant or breast-feeding mothers and children up to age five. The goal is to improve the health of mothers and babies by providing access to nutritional foods.

“If you produce healthy babies, you have healthy adults. That’s our whole premise,” Martin said.

About 928 children under the age of five in Whitman County received WIC food and 432 pregnant, breastfeeding and postpartum women received vouchers, according to the county’s release.

WIC procress starts when a family visits one of the county health offices in Pullman, Colfax or Tekoa. Upon meeting the qualifications for a low-income family, the family is given food vouchers. For example, a family of four qualifies if their annual income is less than $40,793.

Grocery stores around the county accept the vouchers, which are for specific foods based on the mother and child’s needs.

At the end of the month, the federal government reimburses grocery stores for the amount they received in WIC vouchers.

Martin said most stores around the county and throughout the state accept the vouchers.