COLORADO TRANSPORTATION SERVICES

WIC is a low-income safeguard program (since 1974) for women, infants, & children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk, providing nutritious foods, nutitional counseling and referrals to health services and other social services. FREE

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides funding and policy guidance.
Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) operates the WIC Program in the State of Colorado.
CDPHE in turn provides funding and policy to county health departments, nursing services or community health centers to provide WIC services to individuals throughout the state..

DoD's Program for WIC Overseas

TARGET AUDIENCES
(in all states, 33 Indian Tribal Organization and 4 U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, the American Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam)

Pregnant women (through pregnancy and up to 6 weeks after birth or after pregnancy ends).
Breastfeeding women (up to infant�s 1st birthday)
Non-breastfeeding postpartum women (up to 6 months after the birth of an infant or after pregnancy ends)
Infants (up to 1st birthday). WIC serves 47% of all infants born in the United States.
Children up to their 5th birthday.

WIC operates approximately 125 clinics statewide that provide WIC services.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

State residency is required, and it may be necessary to apply at a WIC-participating clinic in a local service area
must meet income guidelines, and
be determined to be at "nutritional risk" by a health professional.
Have gross family earnings at 185% of the U.S. Poverty Income level.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply as a participant (on behalf of oneself and/or one's children) in the WIC Program, should contact one of the WIC State agencies to find out more about where to go to apply and what you need to bring with you. Directories contain website links and toll-free numbers.

Applicants must be seen by a health professional such as a physician, nurse, or nutritionist who determines whether an individual is at nutrition risk. In many cases, this is done in the WIC clinic at no cost to the applicant, or from another health professional such as the applicant's physician.

"Nutrition risk" means that an individual has medical-based or dietary-based conditions. Examples of medical-based conditions include anemia (low blood levels), underweight, or history of poor pregnancy outcome. An applicant must have at least one of the medical or dietary conditions on the State's list of WIC nutrition risk criteria. A dietary-based condition includes, for example, a poor diet. At a minimum, the applicant's height and weight must be measured and bloodwork taken to check for anemia.

For more information online about about How to Apply, or contact the USDA Food and Nutrition Service Public Information Staff at 703.305.2286

ELIGIBILITY INCOME GUIDELINES
July 1 2005 - June 30, 2006

applicants' gross income (i.e. before taxes are withheld):
must fall at or below 185 percent of the U.S. Poverty Income Guidelines.

People in Household	Annual Gross Income	Monthly Gross Income
1	$17,705	$1,476
2	$23,736	$1,978
3	$29.767	$2,481
4	$35,798	$2,984
5	$41,829	$3,486
6	$47,860	$3,989
7	$53,891	$4,491
8	$59,922	$4,994
each additional person	+$6,031	+$503

Automatic eligibility for the following groups

-- Food Stamps,
--Medicaid,
--Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, formerly known as AFDC,
--Aid to Families with Dependent Children)

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) serves to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, & children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.

WIC is not an entitlement program as Congress does not set aside funds to allow every eligible individual to participate in the program. WIC is a Federal grant program for which Congress authorizes a specific amount of funds each year for the program, which means that there are only limited funds and those who apply before the funds are allocated receive benefits, and those who wait lose out; although WIC now claims to serve 93% of all eligible women, infants and children.

Local WIC agencies are provided with allowances, and once their caseload becomes maxed-out, a hierarchy of priorities are used for accepting new clients:

Pregnant and breast-feeding women and infants determined to be at medically-based nutritional risk;
Infants, up to 6 months, whose mothers participated in WIC or could have because of a medically-based nutritional risk;
Eligible children with a medically-based nutritional risk;
Pregnant and breast-feeding women and infants with dietary-based nutritional risk;
Non breast-feeding, post-partum women with any nutritional risk;
Individual at nutritional risk who are current participants and are either homeless or migrants and are likely to continue to be at nutritional risk without WIC food assistance.

SERVICES
(provided to a monthly average of
7.63 million women in 2003)

Supplemental nutritious foods that are diet specific for each participating individual woman (through checks or vouchers, and in some locales through warehoused or delivered foods)
Nutrition education and counseling at WIC clinics including breastfeeding support (fathers Supporting Breastfeeding)
Screening and referrals to other health, welfare and social services
Although mothers participating in WIC are encouraged to breast feed, infant formula is available.

More than 7 or 8 million people receive WIC benefits every month (7.5 millin in 2002) including approximately 79,500 Colorado clients.

A 1990 study showed that women who participated in the program during their pregnancies had lower Medicaid costs for themselves and their babies than did women who did not participate. WIC participation was also linked with longer gestation periods, higher birthweights and lower infant mortality

A series of reports published by USDA based on linked 1988 WIC and Medicaid data on over 100,000 births found that every dollar spent on prenatal WIC participation for low-income Medicaid women in 5 States resulted in:

longer pregnancies;
fewer premature births;
lower incidence of moderately low and very low birth weight infants;
fewer infant deaths;
a greater likelihood of receiving prenatal care; and
savings in health care costs from $1.77 to $3.13 within the first 60 days after birth.
increase the likelihood of children having a regular provider of medical care;19 and,
improve growth rates
WIC reduces fetal deaths and infant mortality.
WIC reduces low birthweight rates and increases the duration of pregnancy.
WIC improves the growth of nutritionally at-risk infants and children.
WIC decreases the incidence of iron deficiency anemia in children.
WIC improves the dietary intake of pregnant and postpartum women and improves weight gain in pregnant women.
Pregnant women participating in WIC receive prenatal care earlier.
Children enrolled in WIC are more likely to have a regular source of medical care and have more up to date immunizations.
WIC helps get children ready to start school: children who receive WIC benefits demonstrate improved intellectual development.
WIC significantly improves children�s diets.

Improved Cognitive Development
Cognitive development influences school achievement and behavior. Participation in the WIC Program has been shown to:

improve vocabulary scores for children of mothers who participated in WIC prenatally; and
significantly improve memory for numbers for children enrolled in WIC after the first year of life

More information about How WIC Helps.

WIC food is high in one or more of the following nutrients: protein, calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C which are the nutrients frequently lacking in the diets of the program's low-income target population.

WIC foods include iron-fortified infant formula and infant cereal, iron-fortified adult cereal, vitamin C-rich fruit and/or vegetable juice, eggs, milk, cheese, peanut butter, dried beans or peas, tuna fish and carrots.

--Allowable Food List - As of February 2005
--en Espanol

WIC Food Package -- Special infant formulas and certain medical foods may be provided when prescribed by a physician or health professional for a specified medical condition.

WIC INFANT FORMULA PROGRAM

Mothers participating in WIC are encouraged to breastfeed their infants if possible, but State WIC agencies will provide formula to mothers who choose to use it.

In general, one brand of infant formula is provided in each state to its participants. That brand is determined based on competitive bidding, and the manufacturer winning the contract for that state agrees to repay the state a rebate for each can of infant formula that is purchased by WIC participants so that WIC pays the lowest possible price for infant formula in each state. These rebates returned nearl $1.5 billion in 2002 from infant formula manufacturers, which allowed approximately 2.1 million additional eligible women, infants, and children to be served from the WIC budget. Near 25% of WIC participant are served with this rebate money..

Formula
Formula Database at WIC Works Resource System

SUCCESSES CLAIMED BY THE WIC PROGRAM

improving the health of pregnant women, infants and children
fewer premature and low-birth-weight babies
increased likelihood that pregnant women will get prenatal care
reductions in Medicaid costs for WIC participants
improved dietary intake by WIC participants
reduced rates of iron deficiency anemia
improved cognitive development in WIC children
increased immunization rates
higher breastfeeding rates
lowed infant mortality

The Colorado WIC Program recommends breastfeeding as superior nutrition for infants and as a foundation for optimal health, growth and development. Breastfeeding of infants decreases the incidence of

diarrhea,
ear infections,
pneumonia,
allergies, and
other acute and chronic illnesses.
In addition, breastfeeding offers numerous health benefits to mothers and results in substantial health care cost savings.

WIC FARMERS MARKET NUTRITION PROGRAM (WIC FMNP)

FMNP (established by Congress in July 1992) provides additional coupons to WIC participants that they can use to purchase fresh locally grown fruits and vegetables at participating farmers' markets that have been approved by the State agency to accept FMNP coupons. (FMNP is funded through a Congressionally mandated set-aside in the WIC appropriation.). During fiscal year 2003, over 2.3 million WIC participants received benefits; and 16,226 farmers and 2,345 farmers markets were authorized to accept FMNP coupons. For fiscal year 2004, just over $22.8 million was appropriated for the FMNP ($25 million was appropriated in 2003).

WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition (FMNP) Fact Sheet

Farmers Market Nutrition Program

The Healthy People Year 2010 Breastfeeding Objective is to have 75% of mothers initiate breastfeeding, 50% continue to breastfeed for at least 6 months, and 25% breastfeeding at 1 year.

ABOUT WIC - our mission, WIC at a Glance overview, how WIC helps, and laws and regulations.

WIC FACT SHEET

WIC's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). / Frequently Asked Questions about WIC

WIC Program Fact Sheet in PDF Espanol

A-Z Topic Directory - opics A to Z - check this area for an index of subject areas and links.

Links to WIC web pages

WIC ADMINISTRATION

administered at the Federal level by FNS
administered by 88 WIC state agencies (50 states, 33 Indian Tribal Organizations, and 5 territories),
through approximately 46,000 authorized retailers and
through 2,000 local agencies in 10,000 clinic sites, in 50 State health departments, 33 Indian Tribal Organizations, and territories

COLORADO WIC program address
WIC Home Page
COLORADO WIC STATE AGENCY
COLORADO WIC AGENCY listed by countyCOLORADO WIC AGENCY listed by county (PDF)
COLORADO WIC CLINICS listed by county

Supplemental Food Programs
Mountain Plains Region - FNS - USDA
1244 Speer Blvd. # 903, Denver 303.844.0331

Colorado Department of Health
FCHSD-NS-A4
4300 Cherry Creek Drive, South
Denver, CO 80246-1530
attn: William Eden, Director, Nutrition Services WIC email 303.692.2400 1.800.688.7777
WIC Fact Sheet - English Espanol

WIC Program
Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment
Division of Prevention and Intervention Services for Children and Youth
4300 Cherry Creek Drive South
Denver, CO 80246
(303)692-2400
(800)688-7777
E-mail: cdphe.psdrequests@state.co.us

TRI-COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT (WIC Programs)
--TRI-COUNTRY ENGLEWOOD
4857 S. Broadway Blvd, Englewood"303.761.1340

--TRI-COUNTY AURORA
15400 E. 14th Pl, Aurora
303.341.9370

--15559 E. Iliff Av, Aurora
303.745.5858

National WIC Association (NWA)

United State Department of Agriculture (USDA)

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