Trump budget: food vouchers for hundreds of thousands of women and children at risk

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Trump budget: food vouchers for hundreds of thousands of women and children at risk

Proposal would cut $200m from Special Supplemental Nutrition
Program for Women, Infants, and Children, in line with House
Republican efforts

Molly Redden in New York
Thursday 16 March 2017 16.20 GMT

The preliminary budget proposal released by the Trump White House on Thursday proposes cuts to a program that could result in hundreds of thousands of women, infants and children losing access to food vouchers. The cuts proposed are similar to those sought in recent years by House Republicans as they targeted social welfare programs for federal savings.

Trump’s budget proposes to cut the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, from $6.4bn to $6.2bn. The program, which is aimed at reducing infant and maternal mortality and morbidity, provides food vouchers for low-income pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children under five years old, as well as breastfeeding support and nutrition education.

While Trump’s proposed cut, of $200m, represents just a 4% reduction in the program’s budget, a cut of that size would nevertheless force WIC to turn away hundreds of thousands of eligible mothers and children, progressive thinktanks have argued. More than 7.8 million women and children participated in WIC in the first three months of the 2016 fiscal year. Children and infants usually make up three-quarters of WIC recipients.

And the program is already hobbled. WIC differs from other forms of welfare in that not everyone who is eligible for WIC assistance is guaranteed to receive it. In 2013, the program served only about half of all eligible infants born in the US. Congress’s inability to pass a budget that year also forced many WIC field offices to close. Families with children or pregnant mothers living at or below 185% of the federal poverty line are generally eligible for the program.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/16/trump-budget-wic-women-infants-children-nutrition

[Heartstrings]

1. WIC

is very specific on what food can be "purchased" with these vouchers. Only certain cereals (lower sugar content), formula, milk, eggs, cheese, etc...it's not at all like Snap, or any food stamp program. So who is this going to hurt? Women and children AGAIN....

[shenmue]

2. Yes

[DesertRat]

3. He's an evil man

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Women are coming.

And they're going to be really pissed off. Never underestimate the power of sisterhood.

Thanks for this Eugene. ♡