WIC in ny...is it worth it?

cnc

Wed, Oct 16 2019, 5:40 pm

DrMom wrote:

Isn't WIC *supposed* to be for those who are really struggling?

No.
There’s a high income bracket for it - higher than other services such as Medicaid , welfare etc...

amother

Navy

Wed, Oct 16 2019, 9:15 pm

amother [ Mauve ] wrote:

IMO it's only worth it if you use formula. I didn't and gave it up because it was such a hassle and I didn't use most of the foods they give.

For example, we only like red milk but for adults and kids over 2 they only give blue milk.
We don't like juice concentrate.
We barely use cheese and definitely not American cheese.
The whole wheat bread they give is not the most nutritious one; we prefer the Franczoz Jerusalem and they only let us take Stern's or others that weren't 100% whole wheat and/or had other unhealthy ingredients like sugar, etc.

If you want to eat healthy, WIC won't help you. Ironic, I know.

I have never brought american cheese into my house. wic covers 16 oz of any cheese that isn't individually packaged.

amother

Brown

Wed, Oct 16 2019, 9:28 pm

amother [ Mauve ] wrote:

Don’t even think American cheese is covered. I buy either Muenster or mozzarella blocks since they don’t cover sliced cheese. And I use most of the other stuff to. Like beans peanut butter milk cereal...

amother

Lavender

Wed, Oct 16 2019, 9:32 pm

Their food is not balanced. I get for myself preg & for my 3 yr old.
For one month:
7 gallons milk
6 × 12 oz cereal
2 lbs cheese
2-3 bottles juice
some frozen canned juice
2 lbs ww bread or other whole grain pasta/rice
3 pcks beans or peanut butter
2 dozen large eggs
$20 fruits/veg
2 lg plain yogurts

It is a help, but healthy food I use more of, get less & tons of cereal milk which I don't want to use so much of. I am diabetic, so would rather get more protein/veg. We have peanut butter allergy, so don't bring that into house etc.

Thing is, you used to be able to customize your package according to your needs & what you use. Now with the Ewic card, it's automatic/computerized & everyone get same standard package.

dankbar

Wed, Oct 16 2019, 9:34 pm

amother [ Brown ] wrote:

they do cover sliced cheese but not each slice individually wrapped

Amelia Bedelia

Wed, Oct 16 2019, 9:34 pm

amother [ Brown ] wrote:

They absolutely do cover sliced cheese. They cover the 16 slice package of American cheese and sliced mozzarella, for example.

dankbar

Wed, Oct 16 2019, 9:35 pm

Amelia Bedelia wrote:

Yes, I sometimes get the 16 oz package of sliced mozzarella

I use those to melt instead of shredded cheese

bsy

Wed, Oct 16 2019, 9:38 pm

amother [ Lavender ] wrote:

you can customize exactly as you have in the past when you picked up checks. Instead of printing your checks, they program your card.

amother

Mauve

Thu, Oct 17 2019, 7:26 am

amother [ Lavender ] wrote:

My child drinks rice dream. For the 2 of us were getting 15 bottles of milk a month. Rice dream is not covered.

Same. They didn't cover an alternative to milk for a kid who had a doctor's letter for an allergy to dairy and soy.

For those saying they give franczoz ww bread, that must be new. I've been off it since it transferred from checks to the card, so I'm not the most up-to-date.

amother

Peach

Thu, Oct 17 2019, 7:45 am

It's worth it if you're not off dairy, since the bulk is milk.

The card makes shopping much much easier.

If you don't want bread, you can get ww pasta or brown rice.

You can get sliced mozzarella. I used to get the blocks and shred them before I realized.

It really isn't balanced. When I was newly married and pregnant, we got way too many milks. But now we are kah a bigger family and we use up the milk easily.

amother

Papaya

Thu, Oct 17 2019, 7:52 am

amother [ Mauve ] wrote:

It's just a lot of paperwork. I didn't get rice dream from them but I got Neocate formula which is super expensive. (Didn't try for the rice dream because fell off it when child turned 1).

amother

Brunette

Thu, Oct 17 2019, 8:01 am

DrMom wrote:

Isn't WIC *supposed* to be for those who are really struggling?

If Mommy and Daddy are giving you money for all your expenses, but the income is not technically yours, then yeah, it can be annoying.

Rolling Eyes

Also, as another poster said, the income limits are higher than with other programs. My KT was astonished to hear that I didn't qualify for WIC. (I am astonished to hear that frum families can survive on an income which would qualify for WIC, regardless of how many children they have.)