Lifeline for Families: Emergency funds keep WIC program running amid shutdown

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Gov. Polis announced on Wednesday that emergency funding was secured for Colorado's Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, which was in jeopardy due to the government shutdown.

WIC is a nutritional program whose primary focus is to provide food, education and formula to families. El Paso County Public Health (EPCPH) was preparing for a shutdown out of an abundance of caution.

"We were preparing for the possibility of there not being food benefits for October, but Colorado, the state, figured out an emergency funding situation, so there are benefits. But yes, we were doing a lot of work, kind of networking with food banks or local providers and things like that, just to try to fill any gaps that might be occurring if we were to not be able to function. But luckily, we are. We're encouraging clients to attend their appointments in October, and they are able to use that for the benefits too," explained Melissa Gordon, the Division Manager for WIC at El Paso County Public Health.

According to the Office of Governor Polis, the state is using money from the general fund to keep WIC running for up to one month. The emergency funding amounts to $7.5 million, according to officials.

"It was a huge relief, because we have over 14,000 clients in the county, so, that would have been quite a lot of people not getting their food benefits," said Gordon.

KRDO13 spoke to one local mom who uses the program, who says WIC has been a lifesaver.

Ashley Vasquez says she has used WIC for all three of her kids. She says she took advantage of the programs they offer, which include informational classes. According to WIC, the program features classes on nutrition and breastfeeding.

Vasquez says her firstborn son was premature, and despite all efforts, he would not breastfeed. It meant that Vasquez had to rely on the formula.

"Formula is, like, crazy expensive. So literally the only way we were able to afford it was with WIC," she said.

She says she knows first-hand how important the program is to families. However, the emergency funding secured for the program only funds it until the end of the month. If the government shutdown doesn't end by then, she said she is worried for moms who can't afford formula on their own.

"It does worry me for other moms that might have newborns. And that's the only thing their baby can have. They can't have, you know, they can't drink whole milk. They can't drink water. They can literally only have formula. So if they can't afford it, I mean, there's no other option that they have to have that formula. So it makes me feel for other moms," shared Vasquez.

Vasquez also explained how it was helpful to have access to nutritious foods through WIC. Gordon, with EPCPH, explained what qualifies as a necessity in that category for moms.

"It's a group of essentially healthy foods that are loaded onto what we call an event card. And they're able to go to the grocery store and purchase those things. So, everything has some nutritional value, essentially. So things like, fresh fruits and vegetables, formula where appropriate, whole grains, that is, calcium-based products. That is dairy. So just some really important key nutrients for your periods of growth, such as pregnancy or, infancy and children. That's the food package and then also, of course, the breastfeeding support is a huge thing that we do also offering breast pumps. Also there's community referral. So we do recognize that the shutdown might be impacting people in other ways. So we can really be a key connection to some other community referrals that might be helpful to them," detailed Gordon.

For more details on WIC in El Paso County, click here.

According to state officials, they plan to be reimbursed by the federal government for the funding they are providing to WIC. We asked the governor's office what would happen if they didn't receive repayment from the federal government. The governor's office responded to our email, but did not answer that specific question.

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