More Aid Due Poor Mothers, Infants in O.C.

Seeking to fill a “dramatic” need, the state has made Orange County the only county in California to get additional slots for a program that provides food to poor pregnant women and infants, officials said Monday.

Because of the decision, the county’s Women, Infants and Children Program is authorized to feed 2,000 more poor people each month--meaning an extra $1 million a year in welfare benefits.

“This was something we’d been working toward for a long time,” said Diane Woloshin, a senior nutritionist with the local WIC office. “There’s such a heavy need in Orange County.”

With the new slots, the county will be able to give about 21,400 vouchers a month to pregnant women and infants, entitling each to about $65 worth of baby formula, milk, eggs, juice, cereal and other staples.

“Orange County was the only WIC agency to get an increased caseload this year,” said Phyllis Bramson, the state WIC director in Sacramento. “The need was much more dramatic there.”

The decision, coming just six weeks after the state moved to cut 15% from local allotments, reflects the tremendous growth in demand for welfare services in Orange County compared to other counties.

Fueled by increases in the population in general and immigrant communities in particular, Orange County’s demand for WIC services has risen sharply, climbing 28% in less than a year, officials say.

The WIC program relies entirely on federal funds but is run by the state, with the assistance of counties and local agencies. In Orange County, it is run by the County Health Care Agency.

Hit with growing budget problems, state WIC administrators in December ordered local WIC programs to sharply cut back their vouchers. Orange County was told to reduce its caseload by 3,400--or 15%--to stay within its allotted level.

But in late January, the state reversed field and told Orange County officials that they would get 2,000 additional WIC slots this month. The increased aid will come from realigning existing funds, state officials said.

Bramson said the WIC program ranks potential recipients by level of need, with pregnant women, breast-feeding women and infants getting the highest priority. Unlike other areas, Orange County has consistently exceeded its available resources simply trying to meet the demands of those three groups.

“There’s no question there are a lot of programs throughout the state that could serve more participants,” Bramson said. “Where Orange County was unique is that they were over their allotted caseload just struggling to serve pregnant women, breast-feeding women and infants.”

Despite the additional state funding, officials say Orange County still has an unmet need, with up to 24,000 people seeking assistance every month.

“What this enables us to do,” said Michele van Eyken, the WIC director in Orange County, “is get us through the fiscal year. . . . The need in Orange County was so apparent that the state was willing to go out on a limb for us and find us this money.”

In a prepared statement, Board of Supervisors Chairman Roger R. Stanton lauded the state’s increased aid and credited “an intensive lobbying effort” by the county for the success.

Barbara Brown, an aide to Stanton, said the county’s health care staff and lobbyists have been pressing the state for more than a year to expand local WIC assistance.

“It was very easy to justify (with statistics) why Orange County was in such great need,” Brown said. “(State officials) have this delusion that Orange County is this wealthy county without any problems, and we were finally able to show them that that’s just not the reality.”