Needy families hit roadblock to using WIC food vouchers

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | May 16, 2014 | Melody Gutierrez and Will Kane

[artichokegrower]

Cashiers smiled as they welcomed customers to the Foods Co supermarket in East Oakland during the much-anticipated opening of the 75,000-square-foot store just over a month ago. Grocers showed off stacks of colorful fresh fruits and vegetables, the kind of nutritious foods residents said were impossible to find on the liquor-store shelves that were previously their only neighborhood option.

[artichokegrower]

The troublesome vendors mostly consisted of small stores - like liquor stores and corner markets - which flooded the state with applications to become WIC vendors

Liquor stores participating in the WIC program? Who saw this being a problem?

[BenLurkin]

Among the complaints were some that vendors offered WIC participants questionable incentives to shop at their stores and then inflated the price of WIC items charged to the state.

Sure am tired of seeing government pi$$ing away my money.

[RWGinger]

I agree
Really tired of our taxpayer money wasted.
How much. in addition to WIC do people receive free? SNAP TANF cell phone medical etc etc etc

[Dilbert San Diego]

I am shocked for two reasons.

First, we are in Year Six of the Obama era. Obama is a good Democrat. Democrats are compassionate to the poor and want to cut red tape to serve the poor.

Secondly, as this program also has the state of California involved, remember that California is run by Democrats from top to bottom. Every constitutional officer from governor on down is a Democrat. Both houses of the state legislature are run by Democrats.

So, considering that Democrats are so compassionate to the poor, and there are no evil Republicans/conservatives involved here, how can such a feel good program as WIC be having these problems???????

[blueunicorn6]

Why sure....the answer is to remove all government oversight. That’s working so well.

[DoughtyOne]

The problem is, the larger stores are afraid to enter into certain markets, because of crime, the potential for the store to be destroying in a riot situation. So all that is left in these areas are liquor stores, Seven Elevens, and gas station food marts. And guess what folks? They charge more for everything, not just food.

So what does the federal government do? Why it freezes things in place, so that even if a large good provider does enter these markets, the public on the WIC programs can’t do business there. And then our brilliant government can’t figure out why the end user isn’t getting more bang for their buck, and the feds are having to pay out more money.

Is there anyone in D.C. that understands basic economics? I mean this is about as simple as it gets.

[Vinnie]

Should we start a pool on how long before this supermarket yells ‘enough’ and closes its doors.
They will try to raise their prices to cover the shoplifting. The ‘community leaders’ will crow discrimination. The store pulls out.
I’ll start..12 months.

[wac3rd]

How many inner city 400 pounders with 4 iligitimare kids in tow screaming on her cell phone while fishing for her food stamp Visa cares about fresh green beans and heirloom tomatoes? Holy crap, the imaginary Whole Foods suburban scenario in East Oakland is insane. The SF Chronicle has moved to Communist Fabio narratives, I know, I lived in East Oakland.

[wac3rd]

The people who live there don’t follow the hipster, non-GMO diet the Lefties in SF and Berkeley want so badly to superimpose on everyone. It boggles the mind.

[Katya]

Mondawmin Mall in Baltimore is famous for having retailers who accept “vouchers” for all sorts of services including hair and nail...though I’ve never heard of any program in Maryland investigating abuses lol