People in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, are facing new obstacles when buying groceries.
Hilary Elliott is the coordinator for WIC in Monroe County. She says the food program is income-based and provides participants with checks to buy foods in several nutritional categories.
This creates a challenge now, as people buy certain foods in bulk to avoid unnecessary trips to the store during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I don't think anything was ever done intentionally," Elliott says. "People just saw that, ‘oh that whole wheat pasta is available, I’m going to go ahead and purchase it,’ when unfortunately, that was the only whole wheat pasta that the WIC participant could get.”
She says grocery stores are responding and are trying to keep WIC items on the shelves.
Store Items that meet WIC guidelines are labeled that way, either with an illustration of an apple or with the letters W-I-C.
