WIC program being overhauled

[LyLMyssChaos]

From Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Dec06/0,4670,DietWICFoods,00.html)
Let them eat tofu, the government says.

That's one of the new food products being offered under a major overhaul of the Women, Infants and Children program. But primarily, the Agriculture Department wants more fruits, vegetables and whole grains on the plates of poor women and children and less milk, cheese, eggs and juice.

Products such as tofu, soy beverages, tortillas and brown rice are being offered as alternatives to meet the demands of more culturally diverse populations.

The plan is effective in February 2008 and the state agencies will have 18 months to implement these changes.

I think that it is awesome that they are finally seeing that the dietary recommendations set 30 years ago needed to be changed!

[karlatta]

I think it's great!

One of the things that has always bothered me about WIC was the lack of fruits, veggies, and whole grains. Those types of foods are typically more expensive and are generally cut out first when a family is struggling to feed itself.

[LyLMyssChaos]

I think it's great!

One of the things that has always bothered me about WIC was the lack of fruits, veggies, and whole grains. Those types of foods are typically more expensive and are generally cut out first when a family is struggling to feed itself.

Tell me about it. I have 13 dozen eggs in my fridge right now and I am about out of ideas for their use. I would much rather have far fewer eggs and have fruits and veggies.

[camberne]

Tell me about it. I have 13 dozen eggs in my fridge right now and I am about out of ideas for their use. I would much rather have far fewer eggs and have fruits and veggies.You do know that eggs have an expiration date, right? The maximum you can get through WIC is 2-1/2 dozen eggs per month (I only qualified for 1 doz/month when we were on it), so not sure how you could possibly end up with 13 dozen eggs unless you're just not using them... in which case, I hope you donate them to a food pantry program that would see that they go to someone who will use them before they go bad.

I know that the amounts of milk I got on WIC back in "the day" was overkill... 5 gallons for just me and my son! So, the reduction there is certainly understandable; however, I'm am absolutely horrified that they have taken cheese completely out of the equation. Calcium and protein in a package that most kids will consume it... not a smart move in my opinion. I'm completely in favor of the cash vouchers for fresh fruits and veggies; although, I've seen a LOT of fresh fruit and veggies rot in people's refrigerators... people buy it and don't really know how to prepare it. I hope that it does the good that they've projected, but I'm a little wary over it. I'm also in full favor of whole grain bread! GREAT idea there! It's a shame that they couldn't get yogurt added to the program... they did try!!

[Kanga]

I think it's a shame if cheese gets cut out completely. Dd1 doesn't drink milk, but devours cheese in any form anytime it's offered so if we were on it, that would be bad news and I'm sure she's not the only kid like that. I wish they'd get rid of juice all together or at least cut back drastically on it and offer fresh produce instead, along with some sort of eduction on how to prepare it.

lylmyss - Creamed eggs and toast takes quite a few eggs. I can get the recipe if you need it, but it's basically hard boiled eggs chopped up, with a milk and butter sauce over toast.

[karlatta]

If cheese gets cut a little bit, but doing so allows more families to expose their kids to healthy fruits and vegetables (thereby helping to develop healthier eating habits later in life), I'm all for it.

[laura]

however, I'm am absolutely horrified that they have taken cheese completely out of the equation.

Where did you read this? The article quoted just mentions about a 1/3 total budget reduction on dairy products, not cutting out cheese specifically. Do you have another source that says that? Because I do think that would be a shame, but I haven't seen that mentioned.

[LyLMyssChaos]

You do know that eggs have an expiration date, right? The maximum you can get through WIC is 2-1/2 dozen eggs per month (I only qualified for 1 doz/month when we were on it), so not sure how you could possibly end up with 13 dozen eggs unless you're just not using them... in which case, I hope you donate them to a food pantry program that would see that they go to someone who will use them before they go bad.




Oh no. We get MUCH more than 2 1/2 dozen a month. I have 3 children(2 with dairy allergies) so we actually get like 6-8 dozen a month. And these are well within "expiration range." I make sure to only get the eggs that have a "sell by" and a "use by" date on them. We find ways to use them all eventually, but I am totally open to new recipes. We can only have so much egg salad, deviled eggs, quiche, omelletes, french toast and scrambled eggs. I also have been trying to do things like custard and the such.

The eggs are the one part of the program that I have the most difficult time using. We eat a lot of cheese and I can freeze it for when we run out. We barely have enough Milk or Lactaid. However, I would LOVE for them to allow yogurt.

[GlamaGal]

I'm so out of the loop. I can't believe they didn't cover all of this before! Good grief, no wonder there are problems with childhood obesity.

LylMyssChaos- Wow! That's a lot of eggs. I read in an old cookbook that you could crack eggs, separate the whites from the yolks, and freeze them in containers. Another idea was to freeze whole eggs (yolk & white, no shell) in an ice cube tray and use them as needed. Sometimes I see my eggs are nearing expiration and I panic trying to use them up. I'm from a waste-not-want-not family of clean platers, so I panic with soon-to-expire food. Egg ideas: angel food cakes & noodles. One uses the whites and the other the yolks.

I'm so glad that WIC is getting upgraded (for the better). I'd imagine folks would look to WIC to cover healthy foods, so one could be led to think that if they eat what's covered that they have a well-balanced diet.

[laura]

Yeah, I would use the eggs to make things and freeze them (casseroles, pasta, etc). Or look in to freezing the eggs unused - though I could see where the problem here is you probably never have a shortage of eggs requiring use of the frozen ones. Hmm. Baking usually uses a lot of eggs too, and there are lots of lowfat, etc muffins, quick breads and the like that you could bake for breakfasts, snacks, etc. We make "leftovers frittata" every 10 days or so and it takes 6 eggs. Maybe post an "eggs" thread in the recipes section to see what people suggest.

[hisdaffodil]

I think it's a great change!

I was on it when I was pg with my first son and the first year due to losing my jobs at the time. Way more milk and cheese and juice than we could use. Oh and peanut butter and beans. We had beans coming out our ears.... I had times I didn't use all my WIC coupons because I just couldn't bear any more cheese in the fridge/freezer! It took us forever after we got off WIC to use up all the frozen extras.

But I certainly hardly ever ate fruit or veggies or meat while pregnant. I could afford my own peanut butter and beans, but meat and fresh produce were another story.

[camberne]

Where did you read this? The article quoted just mentions about a 1/3 total budget reduction on dairy products, not cutting out cheese specifically. Do you have another source that says that? Because I do think that would be a shame, but I haven't seen that mentioned.I read this in the 60+ page document (http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/regspublished/wicfoodpkginterimrulepdf.pdf)that outlines all the changes in the program, all the changes which were proposed and the responses that they got regarding the propsed changes. Cheese has been cut out completely with the exception for fully breastfeeding women (see Table 2, page 25; Table 3, page 26). In the food packages for children, the "cheese" category reads "N/A". So, I interpret that as the cheese has been eliminated for children and has been reduced for lactating mothers from 2 lbs/month to 1 lb/month.

[LaughAtlantis]

Page 26 has two notations - 11 and 13 - that refer to children and women re: cheese. It's not cut out; it's just a substitution for milk.

[camberne]

Okay... that makes it not quite as bad. But, I liked that I got the milk and 2# of cheese each month. The notation states that you can only substitute the milk up to 1# of cheese. That's a bummer... But, still, better than none!