Iowa WIC Program >> Ames WIC Clinics
Below are WIC Clinics and Programs in Ames
MICA opened its first WIC clinic in 1977. Over thirty years later, we provide nutrition and food assistance to low-income women and children each month in eight central Iowa counties: Boone, Hardin, Jasper, Mahaska, Marshall, Poweshiek, Story, and Tama. WIC is a short-term intervention program designed to strengthen families by influencing lifetime nutrition and health behaviors in populations at increased risk of poor health and malnutrition. WIC's combination of nutrition education, nutritious foods, breastfeeding support, and health care oversight provides families a gateway to good health. WIC makes a difference. Studies show that low-income children enrolled in WIC have a lower prevalence of anemia, a deficiency of iron that affects one in four low-income children, than those who are not enrolled. Children who participate in WIC after their first birthday also achieve better digit memory test scores than children who do not. Pregnant women enrolled in WIC have fewer premature births, fewer low birth-weight babies, and fewer fetal and infant deaths. They also seek prenatal care earlier in their pregnancy and consume more of key nutrients such as iron, protein, calcium and vitamin C.