Erin Miller

I received an assignment in one of my classes to write an editorial on a healthcare topic about which I was passionate. This wide open assignment presented a real challenge. I wrote three pieces before finally deciding to submit one. In the end, I wrote about Chagas disease. Chagas is caused by a parasite that lives in a bug that lives in thatch roofs. The bug bites at night, but then turns around and defecates into the bite, spreading the parasite. I haven’t received my graded paper yet, but our professor told us that as a class, they lacked passion. It’s funny to think that you have found your life’s calling (public health) but can then fail to write passionately about it. I guess I spend so much time writing as straightforward as possible, cutting pages out of papers, scrapping adverbs, that the passion easily gets buried. Anyway, what is posted here is one of the two papers I did not submit. Take a look if you are interested, but fair warning — it may not be passionate enough.

In an era of the worst economic meltdown in more than a generation, caused partially through a lack of government regulation and intervention, it is easy to forget that occasionally our elected officials gather together and hack through the overgrowth to do something profoundly good for the American people. It is even easier to overlook these accomplishments when these good deeds are directed towards the societal groups with the quietest voices.

In the next half-year, the nutritional intake of half of all infants and one quarter of all children under the age of five in the United States is going to improve. These infants and children are members of the WIC program. By August of 2009, all fifty states will be amending their WIC programs to integrate the new food packages published in a recent USDA proposed rule. WIC, the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children, provides nutrition education and vouchers for specific, nutrient-rich foods, to pregnant, breastfeeding and post-partum women, infants, and children under the age of five to encourage healthy growth and development during critical periods.

The program’s food packages had remained largely unchanged since their inception in 1972, though the nutritional needs of the American people had changed substantially. By 2000, the food packages no longer reflected current dietary guidelines. A lack of caloric intake was no longer a concern for poor Americans, while obesity was spreading epidemically, particularly among lower-income groups. The old packages provided more milk and juice than was recommended in dietary guidelines. The awkwardness was written on the face of the WIC employees who distributed the food vouchers – “Now, I am going to give you this check for this food, and only the person in the program, little Johnny, should consume this food, but don’t give him all the juice, he doesn’t need more than a half cup a day.” The confusion spread across the faces of the program’s clients.

At the urging of dieticians and the Institute of Medicine, our elected leaders conferred. Despite strong resistance from the juice and dairy industries who scrambled in attempt to hold on to their part of the food package, the new rule was proposed. The new packages are inline with dietary recommendations. Fresh fruits and vegetables have been added to the program, which will not only make them affordable for WIC clients, it will also help to improve access to fresh fruits and vegetables for people across America. Because WIC vouchers now cover fresh fruits and vegetables, hundreds of thousands of food retail establishments that accept WIC checks will likely begin to carry fresh fruits and vegetables. The cereal purchased through the program must now contain a specified percentage of whole wheat and other whole wheat products have been added to the program as well. Infants now receive canned infant fruits and vegetables. In an effort to encourage breastfeeding, fully breastfed infants also receive infant meat. The amounts of milk and juice in the packages have been reduced. In an effort to maintain budget neutrality, the amounts of eggs and cheese offered also declined.

The WIC program provides innumerable benefits to the American people. Mothers who participate in the program are able to gain confidence through consultation with healthcare professionals and babies are born healthier. Barbara Devaney et al. estimates in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management that every dollar spent on the WIC program saves between $1.77 and $3.13 in associated Medicaid costs during the first 60 days of an infant’s life. The new WIC food packages will allow the program to further increase the health of its clientele, to the benefit of all Americans. With one pen stroke, 25 percent of American kids will get more opportunities to turn their nose up at broccoli, before discovering that they secretly love it.