WIC benefits are back.
Questions are mounting about the Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to halt the state’s WIC program, which issues food vouchers to 264,000 low-income women and children in North Carolina, according to WRAL.
Congressman David Price confirmed last night that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration offered contingency funds to all 50 states to keep the program running. But, on Tuesday, North Carolina was the only state to announce it was halting WIC benefits, saying it couldn’t afford to issue any new vouchers.
Last night, DHHS Secretary Aldona Wos made an unexplained reversal, announcing that the department is using lapsing funds from last year, contingency funds from the USDA and product rebates from Nestle Foods, a WIC formula manufacturer, to keep the program running through the end of October.
