Wic

Hunger hurts at any age, but as scientists learn more about the role of nutrition in human development, hunger's toll becomes clearer. Stunted development, both mental and physical, is only part of the cost. Chronic health problems can begin at birth; later on, schools see the results in children unable to learn or even concentrate. That is doubly tragic when the causes for failure in school are preventable by something as simple as decent food, especially in the crucial early years of life.

WESTMINSTER — The Carroll County Health Department's Women Infants and Children (WIC) Program, in cooperation with the county Department of Economic Development, will hold its eighth annual Fresh Start Farmers' Market on Tuesday, July 12, 2 to 6:30 p.m. The market will be held in a lot behind the Health Department, 290 S. Center St., Westminster, and will coincide with distribution of WIC coupon checks for the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program....

NEARLY 10,000 more Maryland women and their young children will be able to get free infant formula, milk and other food, thanks to $630,000 in additional federal funds for the state's Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Supplemental Food Program.Calvert St., Box 1377, Baltimore 21278. (

Congress' recent efforts to balance the federal budget give new meaning to "women and children first. " The $500 million cut to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) that President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to as part of last month's budget deal pushes the nation's fiscal concerns onto the shoulders of babies. Because WIC actually reduces health care costs, it is not clear why it has been targeted for cuts. Economic analysis from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

ANNAPOLIS -- Four days after refusing a Schaefer administration plan to provide $1 million next year for poor pregnant women and their children, the House of Delegates gave final approval to a proposal to mandate the same program in 1993.In a 128-2 vote, the House passed the bill to mandate $1 million in state aid to the federal Women, Infants and Children program, which provides food packages to poor families. The two dissenting votes were cast by Delegates Martha S. Klima, R-Baltimore County, and Robert A. Thornton Jr., D-Caroline.

The county Health Department's Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program has moved its administrative office and changed its main telephone number.The new site is Suite 200 in the North County Health Services Center, 791 Aquahart Road, Glen Burnie.The telephone number is 410-222-6797. Program services and check-pickup sites are unchanged, the agency said.Pub Date: 1/11/98

Outside Delegate Marsha Perry's office window, protesters for and against abortion gather by the State House steps Friday afternoon.They are waiting for a joint House and Senate committee, including theCrofton Democrat, to hear debate on proposed abortion rights and anti-abortion legislation.Perry's mind is elsewhere. She has rounded up another co-sponsor for legislation that would have the state spend $450,000 in fiscal 1992, which begins July, on a federal nutrition program for pregnant women and their children.

The Maryland House of Delegates overwhelmingly approved a bill today that would require the state to provide at least $1 million toward a federal nutrition program for low-income pregnant women and young children beginning July 1992."

Momentum is building in the Maryland House of Delegates for a bill that would require the state to provide $1 million toward a federal nutrition program for low-income pregnant women and young children beginning July 1992.The measure, which could be voted on as early as today, began gaining steam after the governor on Monday submitted a supplemental budget that included, for the first time, state money for the Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Feeding Program, or WIC.General Assembly leaders nixed the supplemental budget, citing its late submittal among other reasons.

Some needy families will have to switch grocery stores beginning today to keep using vouchers through the state's Women, Infants and Children Program.But the change by the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene should save money and lead to serving more women, officials said.The five Carroll County stores dropped from the program are the Giant, Super Fresh, Westminster Co-operative and Martin's Food Market in Westminster, and the Myer's Super Thrift Market in Union Bridge.Stores that will continue to participate are the Weis store in Westminster, Martin's Food Market in Eldersburg, Taneytown Super-Thrift and Super Thrift of Manchester.

Babies do not know much about economic theory, but their health and well-being are dependent on economic conditions. Economists such as Nobel laureate James J. Heckman are convinced that securing babies' health and education is a wise investment. Yet Congress is considering a compromise with President Bush that would limit the funding of our country's largest and most successful health and nutrition program targeted to pregnant women, infants and children under age 5. WIC - formally the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children - was initiated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1974 to prevent low birthweight and iron deficiency.

Early next year, welfare clients on the Lower Eastern Shore will have an opportunity to participate in a welfare-to-work program at a local community college, nearly doubling the number of job slots for the program. The expansion reflects a statewide trend, as social service offices struggle to redesign their programs to accommodate tougher federal work requirements included in the welfare reauthorization legislation that took effect in October. In January, Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset counties will join Wor-Wic Community College in Salisbury to place 15 welfare recipients in food service, landscaping, clerical and other entry-level jobs on campus, adding to the 20 to 30 work-experience job slots in the tri-county area.

Program will discuss internal parasites Maryland Cooperative Extension will hold an Internal Parasite Workshop from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. July 6 at the Frederick County Extension office for producers of sheep and goats. Internal parasites (gastro-intestinal worms) are the number one health problem affecting sheep and goats in the mid-Atlantic area. Because the worms have become resistant to many of the dewormers being used, a more integrated approach to parasite control is needed. Susan Schoenian, area agent and sheep and goat specialist at the Western Maryland Research & Education Center, will teach the basics of internal parasites and their control, proper use of dewormers and how to check for the parasites to determine the need for deworming.

WASHINGTON -- If there is a major theme in the federal government's latest nutrition advice, it is to eat more fruits and vegetables. But politics and budgetary concerns have prevented the government from taking its own medicine when it comes to a program that is supposed to provide crucial nutrients to poor women and children. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is weighing a proposal to add fruits, vegetables and whole grains to the food packages that are offered in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC for short.

Farmers' market geared to WIC coupon recipients The Carroll County Health Department Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, with the Carroll County Department of Economic Development, will hold a farmers' market tomorrow. The market will be held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. in a designated lot behind the Health Department and will coincide with the distribution of the WIC coupon checks for the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program. Carroll County farms will have stands to sell fruits and vegetables.

CHICAGO - In the baby food aisle at the Dominick's supermarket in Elmhurst, Ill., small signs offer an apology: "Due to high theft, all powder formula is located in the pharmacy. When the pharmacy is closed, please ask at the service desk." At superstores and grocery markets across the nation, shoplifters have been zeroing in on powdered baby formula, sometimes clearing shelves of dozens of cans at a time. The thefts are the latest sign of a surprising black market in the innocent yet expensive white powder that comes packed in cans.

The Anne Arundel Health Department is nearing a agreement to lease most of the former Robinson's building as a likely site for an expanded supplemental food program and other community health programs.That would give the run-down, 43-year-old building at Ritchie Highway and Baltimore and Annapolis Boulevard its first tenant in about 5 years.The county and building owner, Aspen Joint Ventures, continue to negotiate, but "we've agreed in concept," Easton lawyer Paul Jones, Aspen's lead partner, said yesterday.

CHICAGO - In the baby food aisle at the Dominick's supermarket in Elmhurst, Ill., small signs offer an apology: "Due to high theft, all powder formula is located in the pharmacy. When the pharmacy is closed, please ask at the service desk." At superstores and grocery markets across the nation, shoplifters have been zeroing in on powdered baby formula, sometimes clearing shelves of dozens of cans at a time. The thefts are the latest sign of a surprising black market in the innocent yet expensive white powder that comes packed in cans.

The county Health Department's Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program has moved its administrative office and changed its main telephone number.The new site is Suite 200 in the North County Health Services Center, 791 Aquahart Road, Glen Burnie.The telephone number is 410-222-6797. Program services and check-pickup sites are unchanged, the agency said.Pub Date: 1/11/98

For almost two years, Salena Donohoe and a scary-looking purple dinosaur named Flossy the Flossasaurus have been teaching North County children from low-income families about the evil of tooth decay and the good of brushing their teeth.Donohoe, 28, is a volunteer with a pilot program at the county Department of Health's North County dental clinic in Glen Burnie.Conceived by the University of Maryland Dental School in Baltimore, the program enlists peer counselors to preach early dental care for preschoolers to families in Women, Infants and Children (WIC)