NECAC awarded WIC contract for St. Charles and Warren counties

The not-for-profit North East Community Action Corporation (NECAC) has been awarded a new contract to provide Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program services in St. Charles and Warren counties.

NECAC has been awarded $271,440 by the Missouri Department of Health to continue providing WIC services for fiscal 2013, which began Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30, 2013. The increase of $30,000 over fiscal 2012 will allow NECAC to serve 20,880 clients each month, up from 18,564 previously.

WIC is a supplemental food program that provides free nutritious foods and nutrition education to pregnant, breast-feeding and postpartum women and teens, infants and children up to age 5.  Participants must meet WIC income guidelines and be determined by a health professional to be at nutritional risk.

NECAC has also been approved by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services as a “Breastfeeding Friendly WIC Clinic.” Additional funding of $18,000 will be provided for administrative support. NECAC is one of only 27 WIC agencies to receive the designation, and had to pass rigorous qualifications to earn it.

“Evidence shows that implementing these best practices in breastfeeding will increase the number of women who choose and continued to breastfeed,”  WIC Breastfeeding Coordinator Kathy Mertzlufft wrote in a letter to NECAC.

NECAC is a 12-county area not-for-profit social service, community health and public housing Community Action Agency. The agency administers and operates programs for the low-income, elderly, youth, handicapped and disadvantaged through partnership contracts and grants with federal, state and local governments, private businesses and other non-profit organizations. NECAC is one of 19 non-profit Community Action Agencies in Missouri and part of a national network of 980 agencies.

NECAC’s Central Administration Offices are located in Bowling Green with NECAC County Service Centers operated in each county. The agency administers more than 60 programs in partnership with more than 30 funding sources, and has an annual budget of more than $26 million. The agency has 110 full-time and more than 200 part-time employees.

In St. Charles County, WIC is offered from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays at the NECAC St. Charles County Service Center at 3400 Meadow Pointe Drive in O’Fallon.

Expanded hours include appointments the third Saturday in O’Fallon each month. Appointments are encouraged.  The telephone number is 272-3477.