Essay --

For as long as we can remember, many people have been experiencing hardships and worries, with little to no income being one of the largest. In the U.S there are a few programs that can help populations facing these difficulties obtain imperitive things they need. One of these benificial programs is WIC. WIC stands for Women, Infants and Children; and is a special supplemental nutrition program that targets nutritionally at risk mothers infants and children, due to low income. The program helps aid families in the effort to provide nutritious foods, information and counseling on healthy eating, and to provide referrels to other healthcare and government benifit programs like welfare and social services. (Food and Nutrition service, 2013) The history of WIC dates back to the 1960s when many americans were suffering from malnutrition due to low income. In 1969 the nations concern with malnutrition, especially in mothers and children had greatly increased and the USDA established a commodity supplemental food program that would benifit pregnant women, infants and children. the legistlation formerly authorized the special supplemental food program as a 2 year pilot program in 1972 by an ammendement to the Child Nutrition act of 1966, and in 1975 WIC was established as a permanent program. (Oliveira, Racine, Olmsted, & Ghelfi, 2002) The purpose of the WIC, as stated before is to improve the health of nutritionally at risk women infants and children through adequate nutritional help. According the the USDA Wic has improved birth outcomes with longer pregnancies, higher birth weights, lower infant mortalities, and more mothers receiving prenatal care. Also the improvement of savi... ...e volunteer opportuities consist of answering phones, filing chats, greeting wic participants, and reading and conducting activities for children while their parents are occupied. The requirements include being able to read and write, ability to work well with others, enjoy working with families and children receiving wic and sensitivity to cultural diversity. (Wic office, 2014). The benifits of volunteers are lower administration costs, stretching resoures, and increasing the quality and quantity of the services that re provides to participants. Furthermore the community greatly benifits from Wic in that participants are healthier with the nutritional assistance and healthcare referrels that the program supplies. There are also a large amount of savings in healthcare costs as a result of prenatal and postpardum care for mothers which makes for healthier babies.