House Advances Bill To Cut Food For WIC Families 

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee marked up the fiscal year 2024 agriculture appropriations bill, which funds WIC. The bill would cut funding to below FY 2023 levels and reduce the fruit and vegetable benefit by 56% for children and 70% decrease for adults. These proposed cuts come at a time when WIC enrollment is increasing beyond fiscal year 2024 projections. In a recent brief, the National WIC Association argued that current enrollment trends surpass the funding proposed in President Biden’s 2024 budget. This funding deficit could result in the program having to institute waiting lists for the first time in three decades.

By law, the California Legislature must approve and the governor must sign a budget before July 1, the start of California’s fiscal year. Earlier this month, Democratic leaders presented their proposal to Gov. Newsom. There are still many proposals up for negotiation, and the Legislature’s budget included several food security proposals that the Governor’s budget did not include (as well as some that it did include), such as funding for CalFresh Market Match, a CalFresh $50 minimum benefit pilot program, a broader California Fruit & Vegetable EBT pilot program.

Just 10 Days Left to Support CWA With Target Circle!

We have 75,818 votes so far in the Target Circle Campaign. Can we make it to 100,000? We think so. Thank you to EVERYONE who has given us your votes. If you live in any of the following counties, please consider giving CWA your votes. We have until June 30^th to make this happen! If you don’t know about this really cool benefit in your Target Circle App, check out this video.

• Auburn
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WIC Walks Sizzling Summer Challenge!

We all know that WIC staff talk to the talk when it comes to health and fitness, but do you and your colleagues need a little extra motivation to walk the walk? Join us in July for the WIC Walks Sizzling Summer Challenge. Share this flier with your staff. You can sign up by sending your team name, agency, and the names and emails of all team members to Vanessa. We will be using the Pacer for Teams App for this challenge. 

Be a Part of our Annual Conference Planning Committee!

Interested in helping to plan the 32^nd CWA Virtual Conference in 2024? We welcome California WIC staff and community partners. The commitment averages about 30 minutes to one hour every other week from mid-July – late-November. We ask each planning committee member to moderate at least one session at the conference (but you are welcome to do more). In return, we waive the conference fee for all committee members. If you are interested, let Jodi know at jmulliganpfile@calwic.org. 

Approximately 65% of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. occur during the first postpartum year, and about half of postpartum U.S. women do not receive routine postpartum health care. More comprehensive health insurance coverage may be associated with greater postpartum visit attendance and fewer preventable hospital readmissions and ED visits, according to a systematic review published in JAMA Network Open. 

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A review of nearly 250,000 doses of messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine administered to young children identified no serious side effects from the shots, according to results published in Pediatrics.



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Changes to the national school lunch program in the last decade that cracked down on sodium and fat content in school meals and required more fruits and vegetables could have reduced children’s likelihood of becoming overweight, according to a new research paper.



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