With the government shut down and no clear resolution in sight, a critical federal nutrition program that assists low-income mothers may soon run out of funding, leaving millions of poor families in the lurch.  

Unless Congress approves legislation to reopen the government, the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children may run out of funding in a matter of days. WIC, as the program is known, is a lifeline for nearly seven million low-income mothers and their children, providing them with access to free food to satisfy their nutritional needs. It also helps new mothers purchase baby formula and provides lactation counseling. Roughly 41 percent of all infants in the United States are supported by WIC.

The National WIC Association has warned that the program will run out of funding within one to two weeks of the onset of the shutdown, which began on Wednesday, putting those millions of participants at risk of losing access to healthy food and infant formula. “We really need Congress to come through sooner rather than later in order to prevent the crises that a shutdown would cause,” said Nell Menefee-Libey, the senior public policy manager at the National WIC Association.

Budget proposals from the White House and House GOP lawmakers earlier this year included cuts to WIC, but that hasn’t stopped Republicans from emphasizing the potential lapse in WIC funding as a reason for Democrats to come to the negotiating table. A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget told

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