WIC Program benefits area

By Michelle Moncrieffe

Special to the Pioneer

      Every month hundreds of women and children pass through the doors of the WIC clinic at the community health services building in Bemidji.

      At the clinic, nurses check the children’s blood, height and weight; usually everything is fine.

      But recently one baby was not fine; in fact, the child was seriously anemic. It was later discovered that the baby had a rare disease, and had it not been discovered, the consequences could have been tragic.

      Malnutrition and anemia are often seen as the crises of the lesser developed world, but it has been just 32 years since those issues were addressed in this country and far more recently in Minnesota.

      According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the origins of the WIC program date back to the 1960s when the nation began to realize that low-income families were suffering from malnutrition. The special supplementary nutrition scheme for women, infants and children started in 1972 as a pilot project, with the first WIC site officially opening in Pineville, Ky., in 1974.

      According to Beltrami County Public Health nurses, life for pregnant women and families would be very different without a program aimed at addressing their nutritional needs and general well-being. Malnutrition and anemia would still exist in greater numbers today if the Women, Infants and Children program, known as WIC, did not exist.

      “WIC has really helped to bring down the anemic rates. Now it’s mostly normal. The program really makes a difference. Before infants were not getting the right foods,” said Dorothy Ceterski, who has been the WIC coordinator in Red Lake since July 1993.

      The Women, Infants and Children program is a USDA funded nutritional and educational scheme that supports families by providing vouchers for specific food items to improve their health. Grocery stores have WIC-approved stickers on different items, and enrolled households get a list of approved foods.

      In Red Lake, the WIC program started in 1991. The Clinic moved into a new building opposite its previous location at Red Lake Hospital in 2003, and Ceterski, a Public Health nutritionist and Charlene Siddens, the WIC administrator, saw their number of enrollees leap from 500 to 816 individuals a month.

      “We are a little short-handed, but we’re hanging in there. It does get a bit hectic, especially when it’s just one of us working,” said Ceterski.

      However, she is very positive about their impact.

      “It’s been a wonderful experience,” she said. “The people are patient, understanding and appreciate the program.”

      But among the concerns of patients is a housing shortage and finding transportation to get to the WIC clinic, said Ceterski. The transportation issue spans the region and some families have difficulty in getting to the WIC clinic in downtown Bemidji.

      It was 8 a.m. in the morning when Deanna Thorwardson, a working mother, arrived at the Bemidji clinic of WIC with her 2-year-old daughter Kylie. “It helps a lot, and I always get a lot of information, I recommend it to everybody,” said Thorwardson.

      Indeed, that is how most women learn about the program, through word of mouth. Beltrami County has 1,600 people enrolled in their WIC program.

      “It’s not a free-handout,” said Teri Finn, PHN and WIC coordinator. “We monitor growth and provide education,” said Finn of her team of three nurses and two technicians. Despite a funding crisis, the WIC program has gone from strength to strength, with staff continuing to find creative ways of providing support to families in the region.

      Beltrami County WIC provides various schemes aimed at educating participants. Buckle-Up is a project focusing on learning how to install a child car seat. There is also a dental varnishing program, and a project where patients receive free smoke detectors for their homes.

      The WIC program is designed for low-income families, but according to Finn, many individuals, irrespective of their education or profession, are happy to discover that they meet the criteria, especially as their family begins to grow.

      The current income level of eligibility varies depending on the size of the family. For example, the annual income of a household of three people with a child under 2 years old must be below $43,884. For a pregnant woman with a family size of four (including her unborn child), the annual income must not exceed $51,852 to be eligible. Promoters of WIC insist that it is not a welfare program and that education is paramount to their mission.

      The word is catching on and according to coordinators even the most highly trained professionals with families are seeking their services.

      For more information about WIC, call: 218-333-8140 or 1-888-881-7801.

Bemidji Pioneer: www.bemidjipioneer.com