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About WIC
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children - better known as the WIC Program - serves to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, & children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.
York County Community Action’s WIC program serves over 4,100 clients each month. WIC clinics are located in Sanford, Biddeford, Buxton, Kittery, Limerick, and South Berwick.
WIC clients receive store coupons for free milk, cheese, eggs, juice, cereal, peanut butter, beans, tuna, carrots, infant cereal and formula. In summer months, clients receive coupons for fresh fruits and vegetables offered at farmers markets and farm stands.
York County’s WIC program also provides children with free educational materials to foster early literacy and learning skills. At every WIC visit, each child is provided the opportunity to select a book to take home and keep. Building a small personal library is one step toward a rich, lasting, and rewarding appreciation of reading. In 2007, York County’s WIC program was selected as 1 of 25 programs to receive the Reading is Fundamental (RIF) Program Excellent Honors—there are 4,100 RIF programs nationwide.
WIC is effective in improving the health of pregnant women, new mothers, and their infants. A recent study showed that women who participated in the program during their pregnancies had lower Medicaid costs for themselves and their babies than did women who did not participate. WIC participation was also linked with longer gestation periods, higher birth-weights and lower infant mortality
To qualify for WIC, you must be pregnant, recently have had a baby or have a child under the age of 5.