Saturday, August 25, 2012
AUSTINTOWN
The Mahoning County District Board of Health has received verbal notice that it has been approved to operate the Mahoning County Women, Infants and Children program.
“We are quite pleased,” county health Commissioner Pat Sweeney said of the news that the local health department’s application for a $924,798 one-year WIC grant was approved by the Ohio Department of Health’s Division of Family and Community Health.
The grant for fiscal year 2013 (Oct. 1, 2012 through Sept. 30, 2013) is about one-third less than the $1.4 million received by the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership (MYCAP) to operate the program in fiscal year 2012.
The reduction in the grant means the number of WIC clinics in Mahoning County will be reduced, Sweeney said.
The clinic sites planned by the county health board will be at the Youngstown City Health Department, 345 Oak Hill Ave., Youngstown; the Mahoning County Health Department, 50 Westchester Drive, Austintown; and Boardman WIC, 3920 Hillman Way.
“We anticipate serving 5,857 WIC clients next year, Sweeney said.
WIC clinic sites in Sebring, Struthers, at MYCAP on Fifth Avenue in Youngstown, and the Westchester WIC at 122 Westchester Drive in Austintown are slated to be closed.
Women, Infants and Children programs, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by ODH in Ohio, have received severe funding cuts around the country, said Sweeney, explaining the need to cut the number of WIC sites.
Sweeney said the WIC program, which provides supplemental foods and nutrition education, matches perfectly the mission of public health, which is to foster conditions in which people can be healthy, and good food and proper nutrition help people be healthy.
“This WIC grant will enable us to improve access to healthy food for women, infants and children who meet the eligibility requirements established by ODH,” she said.
The WIC grant allows some cost for the rent of WIC clinic spaces, so the property owner of the Boardman WIC site and the Youngstown city and county health department will receive some rent money to help offset costs, Sweeney said.