WIC gets new system, more accessibility

The Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program (WIC) is making a state-wide switch from paper checks to a credit card format starting at the end of the month.

The new card system could reduce the number of locations where card holders can make purchases because not all stores will be able to install the technology required to process the cards.

WIC in Whitman County

Dianne Heaslet, Whitman County public health nurse, said WIC participants should receive their new card during their first scheduled appointment after July 22. To activate the new card, one must call the WIC card line at 1-844-359-3104. She said the state has been in the process of transitioning to cards for more than 10 years.

“You don’t have to sign your check at a clinic anymore,” Heaslet said. “This will streamline the process.”

She said stores in the Colfax and Pullman area, like Rosauers, Walmart, Safeway and Dissmore’s, will accept the new WIC cards.

In Whitman County there are 535 people signed up for WIC benefits, with the majority of them in Pullman, she said.

A report from the state showed 50 percent of medicaid eligible people within the WIC age range do not use WIC benefits.

“A lot of people don’t know the program and think just because you have an income, you won’t qualify,” she said. “But that isn’t the case.”

In the past, there were approximately 1,000 Whitman County residents on WIC, but in the last six or seven years there has been a steady decrease, Heaslet added.

“Going to the card may actually attract more families,” she said.

The Whitman County Health Department used to have WIC outreach offices in Tekoa, Rosalia and Garfield. However, the offices could not be sustained because it was a long process to transport patient records.

Heaslet said the outreach offices were located in churches and a medical center, where they did not charge rent.

She said she is hopeful to bring back the outreach offices with the new WIC system, as it is based on the “cloud” online.

“Maybe someday we will have a mobile WIC office with the new system, but we don’t have any funding yet,” Heaslet said.

WIC in Whitman County provides immunizations and education for pregnant women on what foods are best to eat, how to track their weight gain and breastfeeding support.

“Moms with more support with breastfeeding are more likely to continue to breastfeed when they go home from the hospital because sometimes it can be frustrating,” Heaslet said.

WIC also educates mothers when their babies should start eating baby food, proper serving sizes and gives referrals for other services.

Mothers must come to the WIC clinic in Colfax or Pullman once every three months to receive their benefits. Heaslet said they sometimes go to the mother, such as if the expecting mother is on bedrest.

Rural stores transition

Larger stores, like Walmart and Safeway, are able to smoothly transition to the new WIC system, but for some small-town food stores, the change isn’t possible.

For a store to process the new WIC card, the store system must have a “certified” EBT processor. Several rural stores do not have these systems, and the cost is more than it is worth for the store to implement, explained Mike Webb of Webb’s Empire Foods in St. John.

Kristen Maki, Washington State Department of Health public information officer, wrote in an email the state would provide stores sale terminals to reduce costs. To be eligible for a terminal, the store had to be a WIC authorized vendor in March, when the pilot card program started.

The terminals could process SNAP, WIC and Cash programs and the department of health would pay the monthly rental fee for the stores.

“There are currently four stores in Whitman County, and 36 statewide, that are eligible for a stand-beside terminal. We’re working with those stores to make sure they’re ready for WIC card rollout,” Maki wrote in an email.

Rosalia Market, Tekoa Market and the Endicott Food Center said they are now able to accept the new WIC cards.

Webb said he elected to not accept WIC because the store does not have the space to house a separate machine when only one or two families use the service.

“For us as a business to implement this we would need a new machine, and we just have limited space so I can’t justify it,” he said.

Crossett’s Food Market in Oakesdale also will not accept WIC because they do not have the technology to implement the new system. Carter Foods in LaCrosse also cannot accept any form of WIC.

Amanda Viebrock, McLeod’s Palouse Market owner, said her store will be able to take WIC cards after a planned remodel of the store in August or September.

Richard Kelly, Tekoa Market owner, said the Tekoa Market has always accepted WIC and he plans to continue the service for local participants.

“It’s a program I didn’t want to get rid of,” Kelly said. “It’ll bring more business to the store.”

Kelly said he expects more customers to use WIC in the store because when Tekoa outreach clinic closed, customers would have to travel out of town to sign their checks, and in return they would shop out of town.

State-wide impact

According to the Washington Department of Health website, group two in the northeast has 44 percent of vendors authorized for WIC card use.

Included in the group are Whitman, Spokane, Stevens, Pend Oreille, Ferry, parts of Lincoln and Douglas counties and most of Okanogan county.

According to the Washington Department of Health website, Washington in 2017 had 275,000 women, infants and children on the program, and about half of all Washington babies were on it.

Heaslet said the state department of health sent letters to everyone in the state who was eligible for medicaid and in the right age range to promote the WIC program.

The WIC program is funded through the United States Department of Agriculture and provides monthly credit for food, education, breastfeeding support and health screenings.

The program serves new mothers, children under five and pregnant women. Fathers, grandparents and caregivers can also sign up.

Program eligibility depends on household size and income, according to the WIC website. For example, income limit for a household with two people is $31,284 a year, and for a household of seven people $72,169 a year.