With COVID-19 changing our lives, some financially affected families may need fast access to nutritious food. The Women, Infants & Children (WIC) program quickly assists pregnant women and new moms of children 0-5 years old in purchasing nourishing food.
Renewing or signing up for WIC is simple!
If your income has changed recently, you may now qualify for WIC. Find out about WIC eligibility and access benefits by calling WIC staff at 916-876-5000, or use your browser to search “Sacramento County WIC” to apply online at any time. U.S. citizenship is not a requirement for receiving benefits and WIC is not a public charge program. Any eligible families, dads, grandparents and foster parents caring for WIC eligible children should call for more information about the program to provide healthy food.
Those in Sacramento County’s WIC program receive:
- Nutritious foods using the California WIC Card that works like an electronic EBT card
- Nutrition classes online
- Telephone meetings with a nutrition counselor
- Breastfeeding support for lactating mothers and food prescriptions tailored to meet the nutritional needs of breastfeeding women.
- Enhanced lactation services (Funded by First 5 Sacramento)
- Referrals to community programs
It is important families have access to nutritious foods.
- WIC services have prevented 7,575 preterm births.
- For each $1 spent on prenatal WIC participants, there was a mean savings of $2.48.
- Mothers who accepted Breastfeeding Peer Counseling referrals and had at least one phone conversation or in-person contact had a significant 35 – 164 percent increased odds of positive breastfeeding outcomes.
- WIC mothers experienced a lower likelihood of inadequate gestational weight gain.
- The diet quality improved for the roughly 4 million children who are served by WIC.
- Preschoolers from low-income families living in cities that took part in a two-year community-wide intervention to foster healthy eating and lifestyle habits consumed fewer sugary drinks, got more sleep and showed improvement in weight.
