WIC program marks 50 years

May 18—The Northwest Pennsylvania Women Infants Children (WIC) joined in marking 50 years of the nutritional program in Pennsylvania Friday with a celebration.

A federal program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, WIC is administered in Pennsylvania through the state's Department of Health. Northwest Pennsylvania WIC, covering Crawford, Clarion and Warren counties, is administered by Meadville Medical Center's subsidiary Community Health Services Inc.

WIC provides nutrition and food support for families and pregnant mothers, and ongoing resources for children from newborn through age 5.

Friday's public WIC celebration at Active Aging in downtown Meadville was to celebrate the program, according to Carrie Powell Dinsmore, Northwest Pennsylvania WIC's director.

The federal program got started in Pennsylvania in 1974 in Allegheny County and expanded into Crawford County in 1978, she said.

Currently, there are 1,732 people served by WIC in Crawford County, but, there are 2,859 in the county who are eligible based on income guidelines, she said.

"We're trying to modernize the program and bring more awareness to it," Powell Dinsmore said.

To that end, a couple of big changes are planned this fall for the agency, she said.

Northwest WIC will administer the WIC program for Mercer, Venango and Forest counties as well as have a van to hold WIC mobile clinics across all six counties, she said.

"We're doing the mobile clinic to get WIC services better known among the more rural areas of the six counties," Powell Dinsmore said.

The mobile clinic program is expected to begin in early October, she said.

Keith Gushard can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.