Sedgwick County Commissioners approved a grant on Wednesday worth more than $2 million for the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program.
The WIC program provides nutrition, education and money for supplemental food to income-eligible women, infants and children living in Sedgwick County.
Sedgwick County Health Director Adrienne Byrne says the grant comes from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).
"We have received this grant for well over 40 years, and it is entirely funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture," Byrne says. "WIC is also the largest public health program in the nation."
Byrne says the county’s WIC program served more than 22,000 people last year at three locations in Wichita: WIC Colvin/Plainview on South Roosevelt, WIC Stanley on South Martinson, and the Sedgwick County Health Department’s 9th Street Clinic.
She says the number of people participating in the program has declined in the past five years on local, state and federal levels. Byrne told commissioners she would like to research the possible factors in this trend.
"There are a number of things that are probably affecting that, and I’d like to understand more myself outside of saying its happening all over the country," Byrne says. "It’s not just Sedgwick County WIC, it’s everywhere that the numbers are reducing.
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