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Dairy groups fight WIC rule change

Two dairy groups are fighting a proposed change that would reduce access to milk for families on the Women, Infants, and Children’s program.

Matt Herrick is with the International Dairy Foods Association. He says, “This is a major setback, not only for WIC but for all of the nutritional good that dairy does moms and kids.”

Herrick tells Brownfield the proposed rule change would allow some flexibility to swap milk for yogurt and offer some container size flexibility but the reduced cash benefit to purchase milk does not help families get the nutrition they need. “If you’re aged 12 months or 23 months of age, the current WIC allotment allows a family to purchase up to sixteen quarts of milk for that child per month, and this proposed rule would allow, basically, it reduces that by four quarts.”

Herrick says they are working with other groups including the National Milk Producers Federation to try and stop the proposed new USDA WIC rule. “It’s hard to make an argument when 90% of the country is under-consuming dairy products according to the dietary guidelines.”

The comment period for the proposed rule opens next month.