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Date: | Thu, 8 Mar 2012 17:52:02 +0000 |
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For the past 5 or more years (I can't find the
exact date online) mothers in the UK who are on
low incomes have had Healthy Start vouchers which
they can exchange for a range of foodstuffs:
fresh/frozen fruit and veg, milk, including
infant formula (it used to be that formula or
regular milk were the only products and in fact
the vouchers were known as 'milk tokens').
http://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/
Their use is not policed, in that there is no
compulsion to buy a particular brand of anything.
You do have to go to shops and stores which have
signed up to the scheme. I just did a check on my
own postcode, and there are about 5 shops and
stores within about 10 minutes walk (I live in an
urban area). There are no contracts with formula
manufacturers. The scheme is financed by the tax
payer.
Healthy Start Vouchers are worth:
£3.10 a week if you are pregnant
£6.20 a week for each baby aged under one
£3.10 a week for each child aged over one and under four.
Infant formula is roughly £7-£8 a can for a week
in the UK, so the voucher for a child under one
would supply most of his formula needs but not
all.
It is possible that a mother could exchange the
vouchers for fruit and give her baby cola.
But this is not seen as an issue, and there has
been no rise (AFAIK) in any reports of this sort
of thing.
So Laurie's idea - that the mother gets the
vouchers and exchanges them for her own choice of
healthy foods - works just fine here. I think
this gives autonomy to the mother.
There is an argument that formula should not be
included on the list at all, and I have some
sympathy with that - it may happen in time.
I think the really uncomfortable, unethical
aspect of the WIC programme as I read it here is
the *link* with the *manufacturers* and the fact
that the manufacturers would make a huge fuss if
it was changed says it all.
Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
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