The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, better known as WIC, provides food to nearly 6 million moms, babies, and young childrenbut only 50% of those eligible actually participate, the Washington Post reports.
That's why the US Department of Agriculture is awarding $16 million in grants to 36 projects that will try to remedy that.
"While our efforts to increase participation among eligible groups appear to be taking hold, we have more work to do," says a USDA official, per the Post.
Among the projects: Native American groups will try to boost participation in WIC by making it easier for pregnant women and breastfeeding moms to sign up for the program, the AP reports.
They'll also try to get more black and Latino families to sign up for WIC.
A project in Mobile County, Ala., will focus on retaining black and Latino families by addressing language and environmental barriers.
The projects are part of a larger effort to modernize WIC.
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Ganesh Natarajan is the Founder and Chairman of 5FWorld, a new platform for funding and developing start-ups, social enterprises and the skills eco-system in India. In the past two decades, he has built two of India’s high-growth software services companies – Aptech and Zensar – almost from scratch to global success.