WIC to offer fresh fruits and vegetables

The federal program that provides food to pregnant women and children plans to offer them healthier food choices. WIC, which stands for Women, Infants and Children, soon will pay for fresh fruits and vegetables in addition to foods like milk and cheese. 

At just 6 weeks old, Mandoza Holliday waits for his first WIC appointment while his father changes his diaper. His mother, Selena, says she has the same hopes for her son as any new mother. Holliday joined the WIC program while she was pregnant. She’s one of more than 52,000 West Virginians in the WIC program, which focuses on the link between good nutrition and good health.  

For more than 25 years the program has offered nutritional education and monthly food packages for mothers and children who qualify. Today, the packages include things like milk, cheese, eggs and cereal. Program organizers are working on adjusting the quantity of those foods as well as adding healthier choices. 

Denise Ferris is the WV Director of Nutrition Service in the bureau for public health. She say says the FDA asked the WIC program nationwide to bring the program more in line with recommended dietary guidelines. "Adding fruits and vegetables is one of the biggest changes coming to the new food package, but we are also looking at decreasing the amount of fat that's in the food package," Ferris says. 

Every few months, Selena Holliday goes to the WIC office in Mercer County. As she waits for her appointment she sits in a waiting room filled with other moms, dads and children. She notices the plastic vegetables hanging in the room as she talks about her hopes in the program … to teach her son to do as she says, not as she does. 

"I don’t want him to end up like I was," says Holliday. "I don’t do I don’t eat fruits and vegetables because it wasn’t something I really ate when I was little."

Holliday says she pays close attention in the WIC provided nutrition classes. She says it will be easier to cook her family healthy meals after the WIC program starts offering fruits and vegetables. "It’s something they stress, that you need to eat your fruits and vegetables and from the food pyramid but then in turn it’s not offered so it’s obviously a great idea."

Organizers hope other families receive the changes the same way. Offering fresh fruits and vegetables is intended to give West Virginians and children across the nation a fresh start in life. 

WIC recipients can expect the changes by October 2009. This will give the organization time to work with grocery stores, staff and families to make the transition.