Letter to the Editor

by Lyndsay Doonan, senior

WIC program crucial, needs volunteers

Dear Editor: Recently, in my Economics of Poverty class, I havebegan to look at the government assistant program called theSpecial Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, andChildren, also commonly called WIC. WIC is a very important programas it helps to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants,and children up the age of five. WIC provides nutritious foods tohelp establish a healthy diet, as well as providing information onhow to eat healthy and the program also provides referrals tohealth care facilities. WIC is a federal grant program, which meansthat Congress authorizes a certain amount of money to be used forWIC every year.

WIC is currently serving around seven or eight million peopleall over the United States. At fist glance, one would think thatWIC was a huge program that was eating up quite a bit of money, butwhen compared to other programs such as food stamps or thenutritional meal plans that public schools have, WIC is somewhat ofa smaller nutritional program. Even though it is a smaller program,WIC continues to grow and help more and more people every singleday.

I am extremely interested in the human services field,especially in the area of helping children. After learning moreabout how great the WIC program was through my class, I begansearching for volunteer opportunities through the WIC program, andthought it would be a great idea to offer these wonderfulopportunities to the rest of campus. WIC needs volunteers to helpstretch out their resources and lower administrative costs, so ifstudents or faculty are interested, you should contact your statedirector; the director for Iowa is Judy Solberg and her email [email protected]. WIC also needs volunteers to help withreading to children as part of their program to promote childhoodreading. I encourage you to try these volunteer opportunities andhelp out those in need.

Lyndsey Doonan

senior