WIC processing system will shut down for upgrades Friday
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana’s Women, Infants, and Children’s (WIC) director on Tuesday, said program users have other options if they need food this weekend.
The system that processes WIC program payments statewide will shut down at 6 p.m. Friday for upgrades. WIC program users will not be able to use their benefits until the system comes back online, currently scheduled for Monday morning. WIC Director Laura Chavez said, the state health department is moving the WIC program to a new data warehousing system, and there is no way to do that and make sure everything works properly without taking the whole system offline.
“The vendors have to switch our their machines, so some of the machines won’t be working because they have to switch them out,” Chavez said. “Some of it has to do with us being able to make sure everything is coordinated on the back end, and everything is tested.”
Unlike the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also called SNAP and formerly known as food stamps, WIC allows mothers of infants and children up to age 5 to buy specific amounts of particular foods. Each WIC recipient’s benefits are tailored to their family’s particular nutritional needs. Chavez said the new data system will allow the health department to better tailor individual WIC users’ plans to their needs. She said WIC users won’t notice many differences on their end.
In the meantime, Chavez said, WIC users should buy what they think they will need for the weekend by Thursday night. She said this will reduce stress on the system on Friday. If you still need to buy food over the weekend, Chavez said you can continue to use other food assistance programs such as SNAP, which is administered separately.
Emily Weikert Bryant, executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, which is a network of food banks affiliated with Feeding America, said such system outages are infrequent but not unheard-of. She said WIC-approved retailers will still be open, but they will not be able to accept WIC payments. Bryant said, any WIC users facing food insecurity this weekend can call 211 or use the website Community Compass to locate a food bank near them.
“I know our members do a lot of mobile pantries over a weekend or farm wagon distributions. Depending on where you are, they call them different things,” Bryant said. “Some pantries are open weekend hours and in other cases, there might be other resources available around through nonprofits you’d be able to access through 211.”
Chavez said the health department will alert WIC users via text when the system is back online and if there are any delays.