All rights reserved. You can use this fruit and vegetable benefit to buy fruits and vegetables in the following forms: Fresh Frozen Cans, glass jars and plastic containers You can choose organic or regular, single or mixed items in any package size.
New WIC Foods. Cheese Swiss, provolone and muenster cheese are now available. Remember to look for the pink WIC sticker when shopping for cheese. Soy Milk Shelf-stable and ounce packages are now available. Check the Shopping Guide for more information on brands and sizes available.
Cereal, Oatmeal and Yogurt New brands available, including organic varieties. Instant brown rice is now available. Baby Cereal Organic Gerber oatmeal and rice cereal are now available. Lactose-Free Milk Lactose-free milk with added calcium is now available. Any type of bean is now available. Juice Cranberry apple and cranberry grape juices are now available. Baby Food — Fruits and Vegetables Refrigerated, cold-pressed fruit and vegetable baby food are now available.
Fruits and Vegetables in cans, glass jars and plastic containers Available in addition to fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables. Fruit items have to be packed in water or juice, with no added sugar or syrup. Forbidding organic products from WIC is frighteningly nothing out of the ordinary!
The WIC program, run by the Food and Nutrition Services of the USDA, provides Federal aid to more than 8 million low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, as well as infants and children under the age of five who are deemed to be at nutritional risk. How then, is it acceptable for states to limit if not completely forbid WIC recipients from choosing the healthiest food options available?
Organic produce has been proven time and time again to provide individuals with healthier options and higher nutrition levels than their conventional counterparts; why are women being prohibited from their very right of freedom of choice? Currently, our government allows states to amend WIC approved foods based on their own discretion a decision they claim is almost always influenced by cost.
If WIC truly supports optimal nutrition and if aid programs are really seeking to best help those in need, the federal government should disallow states from barring organics from their WIC approved food lists. Nearly 2 million babies are born into WIC families, according to Happy Family Organics, and many don't have the option to choose organic baby foods when shopping under the program's guidelines.
That's concerning when you consider the EWG's Dirty Dozen report, which found that almost 70 percent of conventional produce sold in the United States contains pesticide residues.
Only 11 states have approved the brand's particular organic food, Happy Family Organics said in the release, but that's a major increase from where they started. California and Maine will begin accepting the food in early April, while Colorado will follow suit in May, the company said.
Laraway also said that by May 1, the company's jars will be "redeemable" for 84 percent of WIC participants who live in states that approve organic baby foods through the program.
The company created the jars with the intention of serving WIC-eligible families, according to Food Navigator. Laraway told the outlet that WIC will not cover the cost of pouched baby food because it's considered "too premium" or "excessively expensive," but providing this option for families was important for them to do.
0コメント