The program will continue to offer services to eligible participants free of charge. If your clinic moves, you will be contacted by WIC staff in order to help with your transition and to ensure you continue to receive services.” “It’s important that WIC participants do not cancel their WIC appointments-services will continue. “As the Pennsylvania WIC program transitions to some new providers, it will not disrupt nutrition services to eligible WIC participants,” Acting Secretary Beam said. The Department will begin to enter into grant agreements, those agreements starting October 1, 2022, with these awarded applicants, with transition periods occurring 3 to 12 months prior to the grant agreement start date, to assure smooth and interrupted services for WIC participants. These applicants were awarded through a Request for Applications process (RFA) that started last year.
Pennsylvania Department of Health Acting Secretary Alison Beam announced the newly awarded applicants for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, commonly referred to as WIC. WHAMglobal will continue to raise awareness about the need to transform the PA WIC Program at Birthing A Movement on June 8 th and 9 th. Also on May 22 nd, WHAMglobal staff members Hanifa Nakiryowa, MID, Global Health Associate, and Kate Dickerson, MSc, Women's Health Specialist, met with a WIC representative in Beaver County to make public comments at a hearing on WIC conducted by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. On May 22, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an op-ed by Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD entitled, "Help mothers and babies in Pennsylvania," that proposes a new vision for the Pennsylvania WIC Program. JHF and WHAMglobal have been getting the word out about how the WIC Program can be revitalized. WIC has the potential to prevent maternal and infant deaths, and to help address the needs of families affected by poverty, HIV, the alarming opioid epidemic, family violence, mental health issues or other disabilities – preventing the need for many services down the road. With leadership from the highest levels of PA government, WIC can be the front door for vulnerable families at critical times and in critical circumstances. And their clinics have relationships with many other providers who can help address needs beyond nutrition. They make WIC clinics inviting for children and offer programs that are empowering for women. These states make it easier to enroll – and stay enrolled – in WIC, with walk-in, weekend and evening hours, and the possibility of completing some of the required nutrition education online. The white paper identifies states with high WIC participation rates and explores possible reasons for their success. The Jewish Healthcare Foundation and WHAMglobal are committed to advocating for a re-envisioned WIC Program and on May 16 th published a research paper: Reinvigorating and Reimagining The Pennsylvania WIC Program.
This has meant the loss of significant federal WIC funding. Pennsylvania enrolls only about half of eligible women and children. Despite the WIC Program's contributions to the health of women and children, the program has seen declining enrollment across the country.