Palm Beach County families may face significant challenges due to proposed funding cuts to the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. The federal program, which supports low-income pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and young children, is at risk of losing $200 million in funding after a recent vote in the House of Representatives.

Local Impact

The nonprofit organization Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies helps hundreds of women across Palm Beach County. Kristy Dinnall, a mother of three, has been assisted by the organization and expressed concern about the proposed cuts. ‘I’m going to have to figure out other ways to get fruits or try to just get a second job,’ Dinnall said.

Michelle Gonzalez, CEO of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, highlighted the challenges families already face in affording fresh produce. ‘Fruits and vegetables — already, produce is one of the most expensive items at the grocery store, and many families are shopping around and looking for the right prices to get the best bang for their buck,’ Gonzalez said.

National Implications

The proposed cuts would eliminate more than $141 million in fruit and vegetable benefits for approximately 5.4 million people, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The National WIC Association stated that the cuts would reduce monthly healthy food benefits from $52 to $13 for breastfeeding mothers and from $26 to $10 for young children.

Original reporting: WPBF West Palm Beach — read the source article.