Why is WIC participation declining as eligibility rises in Illinois?

Chicago Sun Times ^ | Mar 07, 2024 | Hoda Emam

[Salman]

...

Kellie O’Connell, CEO of Nourishing Hope, said the past four years have “felt like one crisis after another.”

"We're providing more services to more people than we did at the height of the pandemic. And now we're really responding to a major influx of migrants and asylum-seekers who have arrived in Chicago in the past two years, while continuing to serve Chicagoans who have turned to us for years,” O’Connell said.

Yet while local food pantries report an increase in demand for help, a federal nutrition assistance program serving women and young children has seen a big drop in the number of families taking part. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — commonly called WIC — has seen an overall 17% decline in participation in Illinois despite the eligibility rate being the highest since 2018, according to an analysis of enrollment data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

...

[Salman]

Big Welfare says not enough people on welfare.

I have skipped the opening teaser sob story and excerpted the bit that in my estimation tells the most.

Emphasis added. The last four years? Makes you think.

[Red Badger]

“... now we’re really responding to a major influx of migrants and asylum-seekers who have arrived in Chicago in the past two years...”

Young men don’t have babies..................

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

You can only be on WIC if you are a female with a child under the age of six.

Now why would the numbers be dropping in that program while the numbers in others are rising?

Let me think......

[RWGinger]

That the taxpayers have to give money to illegals is insane.

[READINABLUESTATE]

It’s because they all moved to Minnesota. (better benefits)

[PGR88]

I know many kids at Ivy League Schools getting food stamps.

Not because they are poor, but because Fed.gov is handing them out like candy

I know of several entire graduate/PhD departments on Food Stamps - word gets around campus that Fed.gov is giving $300-$400 a month, as a student can easily declare low income, and all the kids flock down to the local Federal Building to sign up.

[ridesthemiles]

Don’t those kids ever grow up???

[lepton]

Maybe they are simply measuring against the special pandemic enrollments and prohibitions against de-enrollments. Those greatly inflated the rolls.

[lepton]

Yep. Declining births would do it too.

[grundle]

Where are the fathers of these children?

[Brilliant]

Maybe because people are moving out of the state?

[rustyboots]

Mom hasn’t missed too many meals, and they can afford “stylish” haircuts for the son. Fried foods being prepared with 3 boxes of crackers in the background. Maybe they AIN’T eating high on the hog, but starving isn’t part of the problem. We could afford to help people like this more if: 1) we quit giving money to illegals, paying all their bills and welcoming them, 2) we stopped sending money overseas to help others eat, secure their borders, and fight wars.
She suffers from “long COVID”; guess I have never had a bad case of the flu and had it stay with me for YEARS!
I know, I am being cruel, perhaps racist, but isn’t it cruel and racist to expect me and others to continually fund every social, feel good program that comes along?

[Boogieman]

Because the new people qualifying are mostly white people, who don’t want to become welfare dependents.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

They maybe living with the mothers. They may even be married to the mother.

Singleness is not a requirement for WIC only that your income be below a certain level.