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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

WIC Marks 40 Years of Helping Illinois' Most Vulnerable

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Wednesday, April 23, 2014   

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - For decades, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) has helped some of Illinois' most vulnerable residents, and state leaders are celebrating its 40th anniversary.

WIC provides food to help meet the nutritional needs of pregnant women, new mothers and children through age 5. State WIC director Penny Roth said Illinois was one of the first states to offer WIC services.

"It started with eight local agencies and 12,000 participants," she said, "and today, we have 97 local agencies and we're serving 280,000 low-income women, infants and children."

Roth, chief of the Bureau of Family Nutrition with the Illinois Department of Human Services, said WIC's goal is to improve health outcomes, so the program also includes nutrition education and counseling, support for breastfeeding moms, and health screenings for eligible families. She said this combination of services ensures a healthy beginning for the next generation. It's estimated that almost 40 percent of all babies born in Illinois are WIC participants.

Roth maintains that WIC's greatest success is its educational outreach.

"Providing the right kind of food for babies and the right nutrition information for moms that are feeding babies is a very important part of the WIC program," she said.

Roth said research shows that WIC has been successful in reducing fetal deaths, infant mortality, low birth-weight rates and iron-deficiency anemia in children, and also has prompted more parents to immunize their children.


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