Posted by
Gretchen on Tuesday, March 06, 2007 5:04:13 PM
Among other job titles I have had the benefit of being a nutritionist for WIC. I worked in a Michigan office for several years before our first son was born. WIC stands for Women, Infants and Children Special Supplemental Feeding Program. I had the benefit of working in two different offices. One office dealt primarily with migrant workers from Mexico who would come to pick blueberries, etc each summer and the other Mexicans that had settled down. The other office had primarily poorer caucasians.
In both groups of people I noticed an attitude that permeated the US citizens, that of laziness, lack of concern for their own welfare, and a deserving attitude. They DESERVED to get baby formula, and ALL they wanted. (At that time each state's WIC office would contract with a formula company to get a great price for the WIC buyers.) When their baby was unhappy it was the fault of the formula and they HAD to have the most expensive kind. So, there go the tax dollars flying out the window. Now, there were a handful of moms who really cared for their children and tried to implement healthy choices in their eating/feeding. They were a very small percentage of the whole.
Working as a Republican WIC nutritionist was was difficult in other ways. Our office tried to get as many people on the program as possible. This meant that they were working the numbers on paychecks, etc. to make it so everyone qualified, regardless of if they did or not. One day, our receptionist, who usually did the calculations for qualification, was gone and it was my turn to man the front desk. I had a woman with a few children come in with their proof of income. Their family did not qualify and I was sending her home with some kind words when the others in my office intervened and made it so they qualified. I was scolded. This must be a common occurrence in WIC offices. The more families on their program, the more money they get. At least, this was the attitude at the offices I worked at.
The only group, generally speaking, that I felt appreciated the WIC program and tried to implement the healthy ways we were promoting were the migrants. Now, don't get me wrong, I do not believe in illegal immigration in any way. If we need migrant workers, they should be legal. Anyway, this group really worked hard in all areas of life unlike the typical white family who liked to sit around eating potato chips on the government. Ask me what kinds of cars these poor white folk drove to our office and that's another story all together!
The bottom line is that WIC needs some tighter regulating or else needs to be done away with all together. We are just feeding laziness in our citizens. WIC is a waste of our taxpayer money.