Dear Friend,

Congress came back from their recess this week, the chaos has already begun, and your voice is needed ASAP to help protect WIC. I’ll cut to the chase: Bipartisan leaders in the House of Representatives and Senate have just reached a top-line deal to keep the government funded for the remainder of the year [1]—but they have horrifyingly not yet agreed to fully fund the Women, Infant, and Child Supplemental Nutrition Program (WIC) at the level needed to prevent benefit cuts and/or waitlists.

We are 9 days away from the deadline for Congress to fully fund WIC before the shortfall in funding begins. That is why TODAY MomsRising is joining with organizations, advocates, and parents around the country for a WIC Emergency Day of Action! We need to ring the alarm bells so Congress knows they need to protect the health and nutrition of pregnant women/postpartum moms, babies, and toddlers.

Here are 3 high-impact, super-important, and fast ways you can take action to protect WIC:

1. CALL your members of Congress and tell them “fully fund WIC immediately!” We make it super easy for you—click on our hotline to Congress link (or you can simply text FundWIC to 888-418-5699) and fill in your information and you’ll get a call on your phone connecting you directly to your Senators’ offices. We even provide you with written talking points to assist you in your call.

1. SIGN our letter to Congress calling on them to fully fund WIC.

1. SEND a letter supporting WIC to your local newspaper. Your U.S. Senators and Representatives and their staff monitor what is being said in their local papers! By submitting a letter you are helping us raise the profile on this very important issue and publicly letting Congress know we expect them to take action on WIC immediately. We have created a cool, easy-to-use tool where we provide sample language and help you directly submit your letter to your local newspaper. 

Here’s more info on what’s going on: Despite kicking the can down the road multiple times last year, both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate have so far failed to provide enough funding for WIC to serve eligible women and children who apply for the program. Congress must fix this by January 19th by passing a budget and/or at least fully funding WIC so it can serve all the pregnant and postpartum moms, babies, and young children that desperately need this nutrition and health program in order to work and take care of their families. That’s soon right!?

Since 2020, WIC has experienced a 17% increase in child participation, and the program is expected to serve as many as 7 million pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and young children in fiscal year 2024. With rising food costs, and increased program participation levels, it is more critical than ever that we strengthen WIC to provide families with the nutrition assistance, formula, and breastfeeding counseling they so desperately need. Let’s show respect for the contributions of moms who are the backbone of our economy and communities!

Extensive research has found WIC to be an economy boosting and cost-effective investment that strengthens both our local and national economy and improves the nutrition and health of hard-working low-income families — leading to healthier infants, more nutritious diets and better health care for children, and subsequently to higher academic achievement for students.

This is why it’s an emergency and Congress needs to take action NOW! Failing to do so would mean WIC will experience a funding shortfall in the coming month which will lead to many women and children being waitlisted for the program and/or their benefits being cut. This hasn’t happened since the 1990s!

Our timeline to protect WIC is rapidly approaching so after you take the 3 actions above please forward this email to your friends and family so they can take action as well. 

Thank you so much for everything you do to protect our families!

-Elyssa, Hanna, Sue Anne, Nate, Donna, Kristin, and the whole MomsRising.org & MamásConPoder Team

References:

[1] "Congress reaches a deal on how much to spend for 2024 as shutdown deadline nears.” NBC News, January 7, 2024.

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