The Henry & Stark County Health Department, together with First Choice Healthcare, is actively enhancing local maternal and child health through its WIC program. Offering vital nourishment and nutritional education, WIC is streamlining accessibility with a new Illinois WIC EBT Card. Heather Aldred, RN, emphasizes the convenience of consolidating food benefits into a single card for participating families. This update aims to simplify grocery shopping, allowing families to buy healthy food options as needed. Expanded service hours cater to working parents and school-age children, ensuring more families can benefit from these services.
Heather Aldred, RN, Maternal and Child Health Services Supervisor with the Health Department, states, “Henry, Stark, Marshall and Putnam County residents have fully returned to only in-person “Face to Face” appointments and services delivery. We do, however, still offer an online application feature to the program. We are thrilled to once again have the chance to offer these important and vital family services directly to our participants. In addition, we remind those who may be interested in taking advantage of all that WIC offers, that the New Illinois WIC EBT Card is available to all WIC participants! This makes WIC Services even more easy for area families to use.”
Aldred adds, “All current WIC participants and households are now issued just one Illinois WIC EBT Card with all the food benefits on this one card; no more handling multiple checks for different members of your family. The WIC process remains the same, benefits are reloaded on your card every three months after contacting and checking in with our WIC Staff.”
For more information on the department’s WIC and case management services, call 309-852-5272 (Kewanee) or 309-792-4011 (Colona) or visit our website to apply at https://www.henrystarkhealth.com/FormCenter/WIC-10/WIC-Application-Form-65. For more information, you can also visit www.fns.usda.gov/wic.