The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is a federally funded program administered by the Food and Nutrition Service under the United States Department of Agriculture. Each state receives a grant to pay for WIC foods, administrative costs, nutrition education, and breastfeeding promotion and support. In 2009 WIC served approximately 9.3 million people per month. WIC services are available for nutritionally at risk, income qualified pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age five. The WIC program provides nutrient-dense supplemental foods, nutrition education, and health care referrals to those who qualify. The mission of WIC is “To safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age five who at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.” (USDA)
The estimated number of migrant farm workers in the United States is over three million. The exact number is hard to get because of the migratory lifestyle of this group of people. They do not stay in the same place for long or even in the same state. The majority of the migrant workers are of Hispanic origin, have no more than a sixth grade education, and do not speak English. Three fifths of the families have income below the poverty level and three fourths of the workers earn less than $10,000 per year. (National Center for Farmworker Health, Inc.) Each state must have a strategy to reach and enroll migrant farm workers and their families. Most Community and Migrant Health Centers offer WIC services. The language barrier is addressed by information being in a language other than English. Nutrition educa...
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...of the migrant farm workers in the United States. Some opponents of the WIC program and its benefits believe that WIC is not doing enough to help this group. The policies in place and special provisions of the WIC program for migrant farm workers is an asset for the migrant farm worker community and has been proven beneficial in reducing nutritional and health risks for the eligible participants. The continued exposure and improvement of the implementation by each state will continue to increase the number of people aided by this program.
Works Cited
Cason, Katherine L, Snyder, Anastasia & Jensen, Leif. (2004). The health and nutrition of hispanic migrant and seasonal farm workers, The Center for Rural Pennsylvania, 5-17
National Center for Farmworker Health (2010), Retrieved from http:/ncfh,org/
USDA website (2010), Retrieved from http://fns.usda.gov/wic/
Many in the U.S., today, try to eat well,balanced, meals to order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. They do so by purchasing their food at farmers markets or making their own meals, so their food isn’t processed or genetically modified. Even though people are trying to maintain health in order to live long lives, without medical complications, many don’t have the opportunity to pursue life like this. In “Research shows food deserts more abundant in minority neighborhoods,” the author, Kelly Brooks, portrays an anecdote and logical reasoning, from Kelly Bower’s research, to thoroughly describe the food deserts in poor minority neighborhoods and how this issue needs to be repaired.
Women, Infants and Children (WIC) was established “ To safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.” In this paper one will weigh the pros and cons, review the information given and come to an overall opinion of the program.
Food insecurity is one of the major social problems that we have in our world today. The concern about this problem is the increasing number of people that are beginning to experience hunger more often. “While hunger has long been a public health concern in developing countries, it has received varying degrees of attention in the United States, most notable during the 1930s and 1960s” (Poppendieck 1992). In addition to lack of food, there are consequences that follow. People, especially children, who suffer from food deprivation also undergo some health issues such as malnutrition and obesity, which leads to more health care and hospitalizations. “In the early 1980s, most reports of hunger involved families with children, the elderly, the unskilled and unemployed youth, the mentally ill, the homeless and minorities” (Brown 1992; Nestle and Guttmacher 1992). However, a particular ethnic group that is greatly affected by food insecurities are the Hispanic...
also known as WIC supplies almost fifty percent of the infant formula used in the US at no
The Mexican Migrant Farm Workers’ community formed in Southern California in the 20th century because of two factors that came together: farming emphasized by migrations like the Okie farmers from the East and Mexicans “imported” to the U.S. because of the need for cheap labor as a replacement of Americans during World War II. The migrant labor group formed after an already similar group in the U.S had been established in California, the American farm workers from the East, known as the Okies. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s caused the movement of the Okies to the West and was followed by the transition from American dominant farm labor to Mexican migrant labor. The Okies reinforced farming in California through the skills they took with them, significant to the time period that Mexicans arrived to California in greater numbers. However, the community was heightened by World War II from 1939 to 1945, which brought in immigrants to replace Americans that left to fight in the battlefields. Robin A. Fanslow, archivist at the Library of Congress, argues that because of World War II, “those who were left behind took advantage of the job opportunities that had become available in [the] West Coast” (Fanslow). Although some Mexican migrants already lived in the U.S prior to this event, a vast majority arrived at the fields of California specifically to work as farmers through the Bracero Program, created because of the Second World War. Why the Second World War and not the First World War? WWII urgently demanded labor and Mexico was the United States’ closest resource. Although WWI also caused the U.S. to have a shortage of labor; at the time, other minorities dominated, like the Chinese and Japanese.
Family dynamics present interesting revelations, especially regarding the relationship between parents and children. While most families undoubtedly encounter dysfunction at some point throughout life, immigrant families seemingly experience such stress continually. A handful of short stories, including “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, “Who’s irish” by Gish Jen, and “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” by Yiyun Li, demonstrate how strained relations erupt in immigrant families. Familial tension noticeably arises because of the immigrant parents’ inability to fully adjust to the American way of life. Further, immigrant parents adhere to strict expectations in an attempt to uphold the family’s conservative heritage. Finally, immigrant parents typically
Diabetes is a prevalent health disparity among the Latino population. Diabetes is listed as the fifth leading cause of death among the Latino population in the website for Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, in 2009. According to McBean, “the 2001 prevalence among Hispanics was significantly higher than among blacks.” (2317) In other words among the Hispanic or Latino community, there is a higher occurrence of diabetes as compared to other racial/ethnic groups such as Blacks and Native Americans. The prevalence of diabetes among Latinos is attributed to the social determinants of health such as low socioeconomic status and level of education. Further, this becomes an important public health issue when it costs the United States $174 billion in both direct and indirect costs, based on the 2007 The National Diabetes Fact Sheet released by the CDC. In turn, medical expenses are twice as high for a patient that has diabetes as opposed to one without. Finally, this high cost becomes another barrier to receiving care for Latinos when some are in the low socioeconomic status.
US Department of Health and Social Services, Healthy People 2010, 2nd Ed., US Gov. Printing Office, 2000.
Of those, 46.5 million were in poverty (Hunger & Poverty Statistics, 2012). For some individuals’s food insecurity is only a temporary situation, for others it may be for an extended period. Food insecurity due to temporary situations such as unemployment, divorce, major medical or illness can become more long term. The vast majority of these are families with children. The Faces of Food Insecurity Food insecurity does not discriminate; it reaches many segments of society (Whitney, DeBruyne, Pinna, & Rolfes, 2007).
A major issue among immigrants is the lacking of education. Immigrants already have a hard life and need help to improve life for themselves and for their families. The solution to help immigrants is the Farmer’s Program. This program is for immigrants to receive an education and work experience that will better their life and the community. Many immigrants are not familiar with english, math, and the understanding of life in America. With this program, they will receive an education and learn everything an immigrant needs to know about how to become an American citizen. Farmers and immigrant will both benefit from this program; farm owner will receive help with crops and immigrants will receive help with their new lives.
Health Promotion Among the Hispanic Minority Health is determined in the nation by the minority health. "Approximately 36 percent of the population belongs to a racial or ethnic minority group" (CDC, 2015).One of these are the "Hispanics or Latinos are the largest racial/ethnic minority population in the United States" (CDC, 2015). "About 1 in 6 people living in the US are Hispanic" (CDC, 2015). Therefore, this student will make the comparison between the status of the health of Hispanic minority and the nations ,barriers of health behavior This paper will compare the health status of the Hispanic minority with the nations, barriers to health seeking behaviors, and methods of promoting health among this population. Status of Health Among Hispanic Minority "Heart disease and cancer in Hispanics are the two leading causes of death, accounting for about 2 of 5 deaths, which is about the same for whites" (CDC, 2015). "Hispanics have more deaths from diabetes and chronic liver disease than whites, and similar numbers of deaths from kidney disease" (CDC, 2015). Even though the percentage of Hispanics suffering from high blood pressure are17% in comparison to 20% of whites. Hispanics are 68% that suffered poorly controlled high blood pressure compare to whites which are 54%. Even though Health risks may vary among Hispanic subgroup and whether they are US born or not. Lower death rate is suffered by the Hispanic than whites .But Hispanic has about 50% higher death rate from diabetes. Many deaths may be prevented within the Hispanic population with an increase in education and health screening . Barriers to Health Promotion in the Hispanic Minority "Social factors may play a major role in Hispanic health" (CDC, 2015). According to the art...
Cheese production is mainly found in Wisconsin and California, the two largest diary producers in the U.S. Together they “produce roughly a quarter of the U.S.’s cheese supply” (Harvey 210). U.S. immigrants constitute the majority of the work labor force in the factories of these two states and are willing to work long hours at low wages. According to the UW-Madison Program on Agricultural Technology Studies, farm owners are “looking for low-cost reliable workers” (Gould 2). An immigrant named Jose who works at a Wisconsin farm is paid as much as two dollars less than what citizen workers earn – about six dollars an hour. There is no reason for farm owners ...
Health Education Journal, June 2000, vol. 59. No. of the. 2 137-149 Ploeg, M.; Breneman, V.; Farrigan, T.; Hamrick, K.; Hopkins, D.; Kaufman, P.; Lin, B. H.; Nord, M.; Smith, T.; Williams, R.; Kinnison, Access to affordable and nutritious food measuring and understanding food deserts and their consequences : report to Congress (Rev. Sept. 3, 2009] ed.). (2009). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Labor.
Immigration to the United States has been happening since the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock in 1492. America is one of the most diverse nations in the world, attracting people from every corner of the globe in hopes of a better way of life. America in the past has relied on migrant workers to balance the economies growth when internal resources have been exhausted; moreover, the agriculture business has depended on the seasonal employment of migrant workers from Mexico to meet the labor demand. Programs have been created in the past granting work contracts for the flood of Mexican labor into the United States, and new work programs are being analyzed to suffice the needs of the agriculture business today.
The office of minority health. (2013). U.S. department of health & human service. Retrieved from http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=11