EVERETT – Funding problems have delayed the takeover by the Snohomish Health District of a food and nutrition program that serves 9,100 area pregnant women, new mothers and young children each month. Late August is now the target start-up date.
It is the third delay since the state Health Department notified the nonprofit Pregnancy Aid of Snohomish County in 2003 that it was terminating its contract to run the program and would get another group to run it instead.
The Women, Infants and Children program provides education about nutrition and vouchers for food including infant formula, cereal, milk, cheese, eggs, tuna and juice for low-income women and children.
Eligibility is based on income. For example, a family of four cannot make more than $35,798 a year to get assistance.
More than half of the families in the program have at least one working family member, according to WIC sources. More than 400 area military families get assistance from the program.
“It’s very worthwhile for clients, and has really good benefits,” said Charlene Crow-Shambach, assistant director of community health.
The Health District now hopes to begin accepting clients in late August, starting with new WIC enrollees. The transition is expected to take five to six months, Crow-Shambach said.
Pregnancy Aid’s contract with the state to provide nutrition services has been extended through December 2006.
The organization has an Everett office and satellite offices in Arlington, Granite Falls, Lynnwood, Marysville, Monroe and Snohomish.
“Right now we’re still providing services to those clients,” said Aislinn James, Pregnancy Aid’s WIC coordinator. “For how long, I’m not sure.”
Some clients living in north Snohomish County say they worry that it could be difficult to get services if they have to get to Everett, James said.
“It depends if they have a car in the family and if it’s available during the times to come in to make an appointment,” James said.
No plans exist to close any of Pregnancy Aid’s satellite offices in north Snohomish County, said Cathy Franklin, nutrition coordinator with the state health department.
“At this point our plan is to have a fully functional Pregnancy Aid program until further notice,” she said.
The group had financial control problems that required state health officials to pay back the federal government for the amounts in dispute, which were $78,342 in 2000 and $91,999 in 2001.
In the summer of 2003, the state decided to get another organization to run the program, although Pregnancy Aid has “had a good track record for the last two to three years with good fiscal controls,” Franklin said.
The Snohomish Health District agreed to take over the program, but only if it did not cost the public health agency any money.
Plans originally called for the health district to begin taking over a portion of the WIC program during the first quarter of this year. One office will be on the first floor of the public health agency’s Everett office at 3020 Rucker Ave.
Higher than expected remodeling costs delayed those plans.
In February, the launch date was set for July. But problems getting money approved by the federal government for remodeling slowed progress, Franklin said.
“We had to go back and forth too many times,” she said.
The state requested $292,000 in federal money for remodeling, and the state added $50,000 to help the Snohomish Health District with relocation costs, she said, since no federal money could be used.
With federal approval of the plan, “We’re moving again,” Franklin said of the transition plan in Snohomish County.
The Snohomish Health District expects to serve 5,000 clients from the Rucker Avenue offices, Crow-Shambach said.
A decision is expected in September, she said, on whether federal funding will be made available to serve clients in south Snohomish County at the Health District’s Lynnwood office at 6101 200th St. SW.
Pregnancy Aid has asked to continue providing services in north Snohomish County, Franklin said.
“There’s an openness to it,” she said. “It’s like we have an opportunity to get more complete services in Snohomish County at this point.
“We’re mulling over how to do that … and whether we can financially swing it,” Franklin said.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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