Expand the WIC Program

Earlier this week, Delaware became the second state (New York is the other) in the nation to implement important changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Woman, Infants and Children—a government food-aid program better known as WIC.

These changes, required to take effect in every state by October 1, 2009, will allow the 8 million WIC participants in the country to make better nutritional food choices by allowing the purchase of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole-grains and soy-based products for the first time in the program’s 35 year history.

You heard right. A program that is, at its core, designed to help low-income mothers with young children purchase healthy food to increase the nutritional value of their diets didn’t include fresh fruits and vegetables as an edible option until now.

While this is certainly a step in the right direction—as is limiting access to high-calorie, high-fat foods such as processed fruit juice and cheese—increasing the age-limits of children eligible to participate in the program would do even more to combat hunger and a lack of nutrition in low-income families.

Currently, only children five-years-old and younger are eligible for inclusion in the WIC program. I say, the USDA should increase age-limits to at least 12 years of age—or about the time most children will leave elementary school.

Good eating habits are key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The earlier children are trained to eat right, the more likely they are to adopt these habits as they grow older. Keeping children in the WIC program longer would encourage healthy eating in low-income families and allow children more time to learn to appreciate the taste of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Of course, increasing the age-limit for children included in the WIC program would result in more participants, and thus, would require more government money to run the program. However in the long-run, teaching kids (and their parents) to eat well could actually save the government money in health-care costs.

The U.S. currently spends more (as a percentage of GDP) than any other country in the world on health care, yet we still have morbidly high rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes—all symptoms of poor diets. With health care costs expected to double by 2017, training children to eat well is the most cost-effective measure we can take to eliminate or greater reduce diet-related diseases and expenses.

Even if your family is fortunate enough to not need assistance from the WIC program, the USDA has lots of resources for parents and kids who want to eat healthier (and even have some fun doing it).

Expand the WIC program and give all children, regardless of income level, the right to live a long, healthy life.

(Photo credit: tiffanywashko on Flickr)