RT Journal
A1 MAUER AM
T1 THe wic program or 'the perils of pauline'
JF American Journal of Diseases of Children
JO American Journal of Diseases of Children
YR 1979
FD May 1
VO 133
IS 5
SP 478
OP 480
DO 10.1001/archpedi.1979.02130050022003
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.1979.02130050022003
AB On Nov 10, 1978, President Carter signed into law S-3085, the Child Nutrition Amendments of 1978, which contain provisions for the continuation of funding for the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Characteristically, it was like another scene from "the Perils of Pauline" in the history of this adventure-filled program. The Office of Management and Budget was urging the President to veto the bill and it seems that only the last-minute intervention by a coalition of groups interested in child nutrition saved the day for WIC by urging the President to sign the bill.The history of the WIC program began in the late 1960s. Between 1968 to 1970, three studies of the nutritional status of the poor in this country were done.1-3 The findings of all three of these studies were similar. Although no gross evidences of vitamin deficiencies or severe protein-calorie deprivation were