WIC services available at Buck Run Community Center starting Monday

Within two weeks, a federal nutrition assistance program will be available at a new location in Bourbon County.

Starting Monday, March 22, the federally-funded Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, will offer its clinic services to Bourbon County residents at Buck Run Community Center, 735 Scott Ave. The clinics, which provide nutrition education and counseling, were previously available at the former National Guard Armory in Fort Scott, which officially closed earlier this month and was turned over to the City of Fort Scott.

"We were formerly located in the armory and we spent 20 years there," Crawford County Health Department Nutrition Services Coordinator Linda Timme said. "We travel from Pittsburg to do the clinics. We needed a space to provide these services and a handicapped-accessible building, and Buck Run has just been great."

The local WIC program, which is available through the CCHD in Pittsburg, provides food vouchers for eligible low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and infants and children under 5 years of age. The vouchers are good for formula, cereal, milk, eggs, cheese, fruits and vegetables, whole wheat bread, fish, legumes, juice and peanut butter or beans.

As of January, the program has 437 participants in Allen, Bourbon and Crawford counties, and all services are provided through appointments, Timme said.

"The most important thing is, they need to know where to find us," she said. "We've mailed letters to people who had appointments through June."

Each county in the program's service area has a location in which WIC services are available. Clinics are offered for Bourbon County residents in Fort Scott; for Allen County residents in Iola; and for Crawford County residents in Pittsburg, Timme said.

The eligibility requirement for the program is a family income below 185 percent of the U.S. Poverty Income Guidelines. Currently, WIC serves 45 percent of all infants born in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Web site.

A continued downturn in the economy and rising unemployment numbers recently have contributed to increases in the number of participants in the WIC program, Timme said.

"There is definitely a need for these programs," she said. "There has been a gradual increase in the number of participants."

For more information, contact Timme at (620) 231-5411.