The Student Faculty Research Prize is designed to equip college students, with the guidance of their advisor, to engage in thorough research of political and social issues from a Christian perspective. This September, Shared Justice will publish the 2019 Student-Faculty Research Prize reports. In anticipation of their release, we are publishing excerpts from last year’s “Reframing the Safety Net” series.
In “The Case for a Culturally Competent WIC Program”, Juliana D’Aoust, Azusa Pacific University student, and her faculty advisor, Dr. Priscila Castaneda, provide recommendations for designing a more culturally competent WIC program, as well as recommendations for how civil society institutions can participate in supporting families.
Discover
American families are more racially and ethnically diverse than ever before. With a diversifying population comes a shift in the makeup of those in need of social services. Immigrants, who make up a significant portion of the population, should receive special consideration and care as they experience potential difficulties in their transition to life in America. Our nation’s social safety net programs must adapt to become more accessible and effective while providing temporary assistance to immigrant families…
Within the safety net, there is one program in particular that aims to safeguard the health of vulnerable women and children: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). WIC is designed to support families by meeting the needs of women who are pregnant or have recently given birth, as well as the needs of their young children. A culturally competent WIC program, then, is essential for the program’s mission to serve vulnerable families…
WIC provides food packages, nutrition counseling, breastfeeding support, and referrals to health services for low-income women, infants, and children. Participants are eligible to receive these services for a certification period of six months to a year… To qualify, they must also live in the state where they apply for the program, have an income level below the income standard set by their state, and meet nutrition risk requirements as determined by a health professional. Today WIC serves approximately 7.5 million individuals, including 53 percent of all infants born in the United States. In 2014, the average annual income of WIC family households was $17,372, with 74.2 percent falling below the federal poverty line…
A lack of adequate nutrition can lead to high rates of infant mortality and low birth weight in babies, as well as stunted growth and development in children. Mothers and children in low-income households are particularly vulnerable to these health problems as a result of their limited access to health care, social services, and nutritious food. The WIC program is intentionally structured to counteract these barriers. WIC’s services have been proven to decrease rates of infant mortality and anemia, lower the risk of low birth weight and child abuse, and decrease long-term health care costs. In short, WIC works.
When assessing the efficacy of WIC, one crucial dimension to examine within the program is cultural competence. Participants come from a variety of cultural backgrounds, many of whom may have different values as it relates to diet, nutritious food, and breastfeeding. For a program, this means employees, structures, and protocols must be attentive to these values and honor the diversity of participants through integration of cultural values in services. On a practical level, this may require special staff training and multilingual services, among other things.
Over the past two decades, several state WIC programs have proposed special project grants to enhance culturally competent services. In 2001, the Massachusetts WIC program received a grant to investigate cultural perspectives on childhood obesity among Hispanic WIC participants. The program’s goal was to provide culturally competent education to families to promote healthy eating behaviors in children, particularly Dominican and Puerto Rican children… The culturally sensitive resources that were successful in promoting healthy weight in Hispanic children were later made available to nutrition educators nationwide.
Frame
Food insecurity can have detrimental, irreversible effects on the trajectory of a child’s life. The period of early development is decisive in the growth of a child’s physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional skills. A mother’s poor diet during the gestation period and poor nutrition in the early years of a child’s life may stunt a child’s growth as well as introduce him or her to a variety of health hazards. Research has found that prolonged poor nutrition in infancy and childhood generally contributes to impaired cognitive development, which may hinder a child’s educational and vocational opportunities later in life... Protecting families and ensuring equality of opportunity often requires some form of government action, and programs like WIC are one way in which government can do this…
Government’s God-given responsibility to care for the poor also involves ensuring adequate funding for safety net programs like WIC. The scope of need for nutritional assistance surpasses the capabilities of volunteerism and acts of goodwill, which may bring some relief, but cannot provide services at the same scale and consistency that government can…
While part of government’s role in serving vulnerable populations includes provision of direct benefits and services, government must also create space for diverse institutions like businesses, nonprofits, and churches to make their unique contributions in supporting vulnerable populations. WIC partners with local businesses and grocery stores to allow participants to redeem WIC-approved foods with their food vouchers. These authorized WIC vendors offer access to the supplemental foods needed by participants included in their food packages…
In addition to businesses, nonprofit and faith-based organizations play a unique role in meeting the specific needs of their communities. With on-the-ground knowledge of the communities they serve, these organizations can often support vulnerable families in ways that government alone cannot…
Christians are called to participate in Christ’s redeeming work in the world. This call requires civic engagement. Christians can live out this calling as they advocate for culturally competent services that are designed to empower low-income families... Churches can come alongside and support vulnerable mothers and children in their community. This communal encouragement can empower vulnerable families to transition from their period of instability into a period of sustainable independence, growth, and hope. Churches can also join in this work by making sure that their congregants or community members are aware of their potential eligibility for programs like WIC and can assist them by offering transportation or other supports to ensure that eligible recipients are receiving their benefits.
Engage
Situated in Los Angeles County, the city of Azusa is home to a WIC office that serves a diverse population. Sixty seven percent of Azusa residents are Hispanic or Latino, mostly of Mexican descent. In the state of California, the WIC program, administered through the Public Health Foundation (PHFE), is the largest local WIC agency in the country. In Los Angeles County (LAC), WIC currently serves approximately two-thirds of all infants and about half of all children age one to five. Eighty-one percent of PHFE WIC clients are Latino…
One of the reasons the WIC program in California has been so successful is because of how local WIC offices accommodate their services to the particular cultures of the areas where they serve. According to Dr. Shannon Whaley, the Director of Research and Evaluation for the LA County WIC program, local WIC agencies are instrumental within their communities... “What we hope is that participants are receiving services from a culturally sensitive person who then can gear the education toward what they are going to need.” ...
While these federal resources are indispensable, so are the other nongovernmental institutions that can provide support to families already participating in the WIC program. Pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are referred to community resources like First 5 LA, an organization that advocates for school-readiness in children entering kindergarten; CinnaMoms Breastfeeding Support Group, an organization which aims to increase breastfeeding rates among African American mothers; and La Leche League, an organization that also provides mother-to-mother breastfeeding support…
The local WIC office in Azusa has demonstrated what effective culturally competent programing and services can look like. As participants reported, the assistance they receive is beneficial to their families. Beyond Azusa, state and local WIC offices should prioritize cultural competency in order to ensure that services are accessible and effective. At the same time, government must continue to create space for civil society organizations to provide unique and holistic services that provide needed physical, emotional, and spiritual support during families’ time of need.
To learn more about how to develop government programs that are reactive to the specific needs of their recipients, read Juliana D’Aoust’s full report “The Case for a Culturally Competent WIC Program.”