Government's role in eating well... one persons musings

Self disclosure... My family was on WIC from Feb-August of this year. We were down to one salary, and with three kids and a mortgage, one salary just wasn't enough.

First let me say that I am grateful for the aide our country gives to people in financial troubles. I do not intend to look a gift horse in the mouth with this blog post. Without wic, it would have been very hard to buy formula for my infant or food for my other children. I will never, ever vote to cut public aide and I encourage all of you to do the same.

That being said. I learned some valuable things while on WIC that opened my eyes to socioeconomic divide in sustainability. I understand how it is hard for poor families to feed their children well, I understand how it is hard for intercity families to be conscious of nutrition and buying local goods. Here are some observations:

1. WIC and other government programs contract with private companies, granting exclusivity of product use. For instance, I was not given a check for formula. I was given a check for Enfamil, I had to feed my child Enfamil. We were lucky that Maggie could use this, otherwise we would have had to had a prescription for medical formula. Additionally, I could not buy one big thing of formula, I was forced to but several small non-recyclable containers at one time. Increasing the waste created by my family. To me it makes since to buy in bulk and from a company who uses recyclable containers, but this option is not available to people on public aide.

2. I was prohibited from buying organic items. Milk and cheese had to be store brand. Even if the store brand offered a cheaper organic version it was prohibited. I could not buy brown eggs. For those worried about disease with a decreased bio-diversity, we were left with out an option.

3. For a mother of an infant, I was given $10 a month in fruits and vegetables. My 2 year old received $6. I would presume that many families will not buy more fruits and vegetables than what is allowed on these checks. Both children and adults need more that $10 a month of fresh fruits and veggies. Isn't WIC suppose to be teaching the low income families how to eat healthier, I don't think the success rate is high with such a little focus on fresh, whole foods. The upside, you can buy organic fruit and vegetables.

4. Many of the approved items have ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils. These ingredients have been proven in many different studies to be bad for human consumption. I would prefer not to feed my family these items. But if I wanted to feed my family, I had to make the concession. Poor families often have no other choice.

Why do I choose to write about this? While I do feel this is a very personal topic for me. I feel compelled to use my example to highlight that we need to reform the way our government subsidises and promotes food usages that are bad for us. They do play a role in why our youth are so unhealthy. While it may not be the staring role, their contribution is significant. We need to do what we can as parents, as voters, as members of our society to create positive change in having healthier children and a healthier environment. This may not be the most eloquent posing on the topic, but these are my two cents.