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For Immediate Release Wednesday, July 7, 2004
Nutrition Program Celebrates 30 Years of Helping Colorado Families Eat Healthy
DENVER—Enrollment in Colorado’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children or WIC has reached a record 84,000 women, infants and children as the program, which provides nutrition and food assistance to families, celebrates its 30th anniversary in the state and across the nation.
Kathleen Baker, a nutrition consultant for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s WIC program, said that when WIC started in Colorado in 1974, only a handful of people participated in the program. Since then, numbers have steadily grown and, in March of this year, participation reached the all time high of just over 84,000. Nearly 38 percent of all infants and one-fifth of all children in Colorado receive WIC benefits.
Baker explained, “WIC is a short-term nutrition program designed to help families make positive choices in regards to their nutrition and health behavior. The program improves the health of women, infants and children by providing quality nutrition and breastfeeding education, growth assessment, nutritious foods and referrals to other health care resources.”
Baker continued, “WIC is considered one of the most successful nutrition intervention programs in the nation. Studies show that every dollar WIC spends on pregnant women results in an average of $3.13 in Medicaid savings over the first 60 days after birth. WIC enhances the nutritional quality of participants’ diets and has reduced the incidence of anemia and low birth weight infants.”
Baker said the program provides milk, cheese, cereal, eggs, juice, beans, peanut butter and infant formula to those who are income eligible. A family of four can earn up to $34,873 a year and still qualify for WIC.
The following individuals are eligible for WIC:
- Pregnant women, through pregnancy and up to six months after the birth of an
infant
- Breastfeeding women, up to infant’s first birthday
- Non-breastfeeding postpartum women, up to six months after delivery
- Infants up to their first birthday
- Children up to their fifth birthday.
“The WIC program plays an important role in improving the health of nutritionally at-risk women, infants and children, and we encourage women who are eligible for the program to take advantage of this great resource,” Baker said.
For more information about WIC, call (303) 692-2400.
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