Refugee use of the women, infants and children program

This study examines the experience refugee families have with the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, and attempts to identify the difficulties they have in order to make suggestions that might result in more efficient use of the WIC program among the refugee population. Thirty women enrolled in WIC were given a survey regarding how difficult they found the program to use and whether or not the items WIC allows them to purchase were items that made sense for their families. I predicted that refugee families would report having a difficult time navigating United States grocery stores, and that there would frequently be items they wanted to purchase that were not WIC approved. I found that the majority of the women I surveyed had often struggled with various aspects of the WIC program due to language barriers and cultural differences, and that this had resulted in the family wasting checks. This suggests that the WIC program could be modified in order to be more culturally sensitive to populations like refugees, and that modifications such as increased flexibility in the items WIC provides could result in more efficient check use. Additionally, if refugees were to feel less culturally alienated they might see additional improvements in their lives, such as increased independence and confidence in their ability to be self-sufficient in the United States.