The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children helps low-income families buy healthy foods. A switch to electronic purchasing will make that even easier.
Georgia is one of the last states to roll out the electronic WIC benefits program, or eWIC, which replaces paper vouchers with a debit card. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a nationwide rollout mandate for eWIC to public health departments that didn’t offer it yet.
“The state of Georgia couldn’t meet that deadline,” Pat Mobely said. “So we now are complete, and we’re ready to go.”
Mobely is the WIC coordinator for the Coastal Health District based in Savannah, where the state’s eWIC pilot program got its start two weeks ago. She said by the end of October, every WIC participant in Georgia should have the card, giving them more freedom with their benefits.
“They’re going to be able to go into stores, and if they just need to go get a gallon of milk, they can go get that,” Mobely said. “They don’t have to use all their benefits at one time. So they have a whole month to use everything that’s on that card.”