Joy writes, from Australia:
I am curious about the system in the US - eg what proportion of the
population qualify for WIC assistance? I get the impression that it
must be quite high as there are many references to well-educated
Lactnetters having qualified.

Proportion of WIC-eligible population varies by region - in my county of
mostly-rural upstate New York, home of Cornell University (and designated
"Most Enlightened City in US" a couple of years ago by Utne Reader
magazine - hah!), almost 60% of babies born are eligible. A fact which
absolutely astonishes most of our "enlightened" academics and well-off
types; it's possible to come here as an undergraduate, grad student,
post-doc, or university faculty, live here for the rest of your life, and
have no idea that this proportion of the population meets the income
criteria for WIC. Which is part of the problem - oops, I mean "challenge" -
we face here. The college "community" (which is also the "upper crust" here
in this small city) is so insulated and self-focused that they can live here
for 30 years or more without ever having to deal with "those people". Or,
perhaps even worse, without realizing that their secretaries and waitresses
and nurses and newspaper carriers *are* "those people". City of Ithaca votes
liberal Democratic, while the county at large goes conservative Republican.
We have both run-of-the-mill small-city poverty, and much more complex,
multigenerational rural poverty.

Most folks are just trying to do the best they can, they best way they know
how to do - rich, poor, PhD or 3rd grade education, Cambodian immigrant or
academic blue-blood.

Cathy Bargar RN, IBCLC

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