April 28, 2012

Today in class we all sat in a circle and talked about the different handouts we had made based on the nutrition program we had to research. It was interesting to hear about all the different programs that are out there for either impoverished women, children or even the elderly. I liked learning which programs were funded by the federal government and which ones were funded privately. I also found it interesting how a lot of the programs kind of piggy back off one another or they have the rules set up so that if there program can not encompass someone another program might. Like some women might qualify for WIC up until the child is 5 years old but then the Commodity Foods program went up to age 6 for children, which would then help the mother for an extra year. 
I think just learning what all these different programs are could be very beneficial for anyone. There were lots of programs that I had never heard of before. I think if someone is struggling there are so many different programs out there that they will be covered by one to help them out in at least a little way.
I also liked learning about what percent of the poverty line you had to be at to qualify for the programs. Some of the programs you could not qualify for unless you were 130% of the poverty line and others were set at 185% of the poverty line. So some of these programs are set so that you dont have to be struggling big time to qualify. Which now that I think about it this does make sense because I know a few people that are on WIC and I wonder how they qualify for the program but it is because she has a young son and she is not married. The woman is not covered under WIC but her son is. I just wonder even with all of these programs and how they are meant to help those who really need it, are people taking advantage of these things which then could lead to others who actually need it not getting it? It just makes me wonder because there is only so much funding set away for some of these programs that if people who dont actually need it are using it then that leaves less for those who actually need the extra help.