Shutdown could eliminate Iowa child nutrition assistance

A new report from a prominent food and environmental advocacy group reveals that at least one in four Iowa children under the age of five and their families are at risk of losing critical nutrition assistance due to the government shutdown in Washington.

The program will lose funding at the end of the month.

Food & Water Watch Policy and Litigation Manager Mitch Jones said the Women, Infants, and Children program will run out of the money at the end of the month if government services remain unfunded amid the shutdown, having a major impact on rural Iowa families.

“So, in Iowa, nearly 50,000 children under the age of 5 rely on WIC for food support, for nutrition advice,” said Jones, “and their mothers rely on this support, as well.”

Cuts to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits earlier this year are making the threats even more dire for children and low-income families, especially in rural Iowa.

WIC funding will expire October 31 if Washington lawmakers don’t reach a budget deal.

Jones added that losing WIC services in Iowa would be another critical blow to food and nutrition assistance for low income and rural Iowans –coming just after losing Medicaid and SNAP benefits earlier this year.

“So, if you’ve been kicked off of those rolls, your automatic registration in WIC is also gone,” said Jones. “So, there are already families across the country who are experiencing having been kicked off WIC, but now we are going to have up to 5.3 million children in this country kicked off of WIC.”

The Trump administration has said it is trying to eliminate waste and fraud in social service programs, and cut more than $700 billion in Medicaid services in the new budget as part of that effort.

Related: Reynolds encourages D-SNAP despite cutting SNAP