To WIC or not to WIC...

...that is the question.

First, some of you might be asking "What in the world is 'WIC'?" so I want to take a minute to explain to you what it is before I start debating it. WIC stands for Women, Infants, and Children. It's a nutritional program for pregnant/nursing mothers and children through age five. WIC is a government program that provides nutritional instruction and helps qualifying families by supplementing parts of their diet with vouchers.

The question has been raised to me: "Should Christians participate in WIC?"

My answer (and please remember that this is solely my opinion) is that each family should decide whether or not to participate based on their individual situation.

In general, however, I see no problem with Christians participating in WIC. If your family qualifies for WIC assistance, for whatever reason, I see WIC as a form of provision from God.

We all pay taxes. Part of our taxes go towards making WIC possible. As a contributing tax-payer, I feel I have the right to benefit from my taxes. (Isn't that what we pay taxes for anyways?) However, I do NOT feel that WIC (or any government program) should become a "way of life" for anybody. Nobody should be allowed to live solely off "government handouts". We all need to do our part to contribute.

Our family has benefited from WIC two different times.

The first time was when we were living on support we'd raised to serve at CFS for a year. We had no true income (just the gifts people had given us before we left for Wisconsin), and WIC helped to provide essential foods (milk, cheese, eggs, formula, etc) that significantly reduced our expenses. In Wisconsin, we were exceptionally pleased with the staff at the local WIC office. They were pleasant to deal with, timely with appointments, and generally helpful.

We transferred our WIC to Warsaw when we moved to Indiana, and we noticed a drastic change in the way we were treated and "helped". Once we both were able to find steady jobs (about six months after moving here), we left the WIC program as we were no longer needing the "extra help" and did not find that the help we were getting was worth the hassle of getting it.

However, when we made the decision for me to stay home with the kids after David was born, we decided it would be beneficial to reapply for WIC assistance. Our experience with WIC here in Indiana is not what it was in Wisconsin, but I've come to appreciate what the assistance allows (even with the hassles). Being able to participate in WIC has made it easier for me to be able to be home with the kids, which is something we feel is important. Could we get by without WIC, even with me staying home? Yes, but it would make things like supporting missionary friends, contributing to the budget of our local church (tithe/offering), spending time with our families, saving for retirement, saving for a house, and paying off debt (all of which we feel are very important) much more difficult.

Is WIC for everyone? No. Is it for us? At this time in our lives, it is.

Additional thought: It was asked if WIC was okay to use in case of adoption. WIC looks at the household, not the family unit, for qualifying purposes, so if you have adopted children in your home, they would qualify if your household qualifies. Should you adopt if you know you'll have to use WIC to do so? That's a question you'll have to answer for yourself. We are hoping to adopt in the next few years (I'll talk more about this in a future post). I don't know what our financial situation will look like when we are able to do so, but we'll have to evaluate the situation when we get there.

Q4U: Are you pro-WIC or anti-WIC? Do you have experiences with WIC that you'd like to share? What are your thoughts about the topic? I'd love to hear your feedback on this topic as well as any ideas you might have for future topics!