WIC Wagon!

Today, Danzo and I went over to our local WIC office to once again sign up for this great program. I can't say enough good things about it. Its a program that provides nutritional assistance and support for women, infants, and children. If you financially qualify, you get a plethora of free healthy food. If you feel like you could use some help with the grocery bill and are pregnant and/or have a little one under the age of five, its worth checking out. Just look at what I get each month.

For me:

Up to 36 oz of breakfast cereal (about 2 boxes)
1 lb cheese
2 containers 100% juice (64 oz each) or 3 containers frozen juice
18 oz peanut butter
9 half-gallons 8th Continent soy milk
1 lb dry beans/peas/lentils or up to 64 oz canned beans
1 dozen fresh eggs
1 package (up to 16 oz) bread, brown rice, or whole wheat/corn tortillas
$10.00 worth of any combination fruits/vegetables (fresh, frozen and/or canned)

For Danzo:

Up to 36 oz of breakfast cereal (about 2 boxes)
1 lb cheese
2 containers 100% juice (64 oz each) or 2 containers frozen juice
18 oz peanut butter
3 gallons fat free/skim/nonfat/low fat milk
1 lb dry beans/peas/lentils or up to 64 oz canned beans
1 dozen fresh eggs
2 packages (up to oz) bread, brown rice, or whole wheat/corn tortillas
$6.00 worth of any combination fruits/vegetables (fresh, frozen and/or canned)

They also check your iron levels, which is a bonus in my opinion. I'll take all the information I can get. Happily, Danzo's iron count was around 13 and so was mine. Both very good levels. Also, after the baby is born, they provide information and support for breast feeding. Then after a few months when they're ready for solid food, you get a ton of infant cereal and baby food.

The first time you go in, you just answer some questions about your current nutrition and listen to a few tips and pointers of how you can do better. We just walked right in without an appointment and only stayed less than two hours. By the end, we received our checks for three months worth of free food. Our next follow-up appointment isn't until May and will be significantly shorter.

Since I'm a stay at home mom, I like to be able to contribute to the income by saving money any way I can. I clip coupons and look for sales all the time. If you're like me, a program like this makes you feel even further empowered to financially contribute to your family's income by getting so much free food! If you can get all this free food and assistance for such minimal effort, why wouldn't you hop on the WIC wagon too?

For more information and to see if you qualify, check out this website: http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/