Women Infants And Children Supplemental Food Program

Officials representing the Democratic presidential campaign of Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder offered a $57-billion plan Saturday that they promised would end child poverty in four years and assist the financial well-being of poor and middle-class Americans--all without raising taxes.

More than 3,000 needy children--some at high risk of suffering health problems--are being taken off a federal nutrition program because the demand for services in Orange County far outstrips available resources. The state's Health Services Department, which administers the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, has mandated that the county reduce caseloads by more than 3,400, or 15%, by February.

Thousands of poverty-stricken women in Orange County will receive help feeding their families each month under a new food program announced by the Community Development Council. The program will provide more than 4.5 million pounds of food, or an estimated 60,000 food packages, to low-income mothers and their children, county officials said.

Faced with a public outcry and increasing political pressure, state health officials on Friday reversed course and rescinded an order barring thousands of needy infants from a federally funded food nutrition program. Local directors of the Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Food Program (WIC) expressed relief at the decision but said they will hold off enrolling new infants into the program until June.

Thousands of needy Orange County infants may be deprived of nutritional assistance as a result of cutbacks in a county-administered food program, officials said Tuesday. Program directors on Monday began turning away hundreds of babies of low-income families--including those babies judged at medical risk--who might otherwise have been eligible for the Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Food Program.

State health officials are asking the makers of infant formula to grant substantial rebates on formula provided to needy women and children through a nutrition program. Their goal is to win up to $40 million for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Supplemental Food Program, a federally funded program administered by the state, said Jo Ann Wray, chief of the state Department of Health Services' WIC branch in Sacramento.