Over 600,000 low-income women and young children will lose WIC benefits that enable them to buy basic grocery items like milk and bread, because of the government sequester on Friday.
The sequester scheduled to go into effect this Friday will cut critical funding for nutrition assistance programs – programs that protect our most vulnerable children and seniors and that support our nation’s food banks. About 600,000 low-income women, infants, and children would be kicked off of the WIC program; programs like Meals on Wheels would have to cut as many as 19 million meals to seniors; and charities like the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano would lose TEFAP funding for the storage and distribution of food at a time when the demand for food assistance is higher than ever and food banks are stretched thin meeting that demand.
