The government shutdown is creating uncertainty about whether a federal food benefit program that helps support pregnant people and young children will run out of money.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, provides food and educational services to mothers with young children. In the Midwest and Great Plains, more than a million people are enrolled in the program.
The government shutdown began just as the fiscal year ended, leaving the WIC program without funding for the next year. That means dozens of state and tribal agencies had to administer the program with funds that were left in their budgets.
The Associated Press reports that the Trump administration is using $300 million in tariff revenue to help sustain the program. In an email to Harvest Public Media, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson wrote the revenue will be used to fund WIC for the “foreseeable future.”
But the details on that plan are not yet clear, and the USDA did not respond to specific questions sent by Harvest Public Media about funding plans.
Georgia Machell, the National WIC Association’s president and CEO, said in a news release last week that any effort to keep WIC operational during the lapse is appreciated, but the plan is not a permanent solution and funding disruptions puts the health of people at risk.
“We welcome efforts to keep WIC afloat during the shutdown, but families need long-term stability, not short-term uncertainty,” Machell said in the Oct. 7 release. “...There is no substitute for Congress doing its job. WIC needs full-year funding, not just temporary lifelines.”
Funding depends on the agency
Kate Scully, the WIC deputy director of national advocacy organization Food Research & Action Center, said the timing of the shutdown made the situation more challenging.
“This starting at the beginning of this fiscal year, means that no money for this next fiscal year has been allocated out to states, and therefore, they don't have money to use other than these small buckets that are available,” Scully said.
FRAC said the USDA has reallocated $141 million in unspent fiscal year 2025 funding to agencies. Scully said the money should allow the program to stay operational until the middle of this week. It’s not a long-term fix, but she said it will allow benefits to flow.
It costs as much as $22 million per day to keep the program running, said FRAC spokesperson Jordan Baker. The additional $300 million in tariff revenue could keep the program afloat through the end of the month, she wrote in a statement.
She said FRAC will be tracking the dollars this week to understand when and how much funding will be delivered to states.
WIC is administered through multiple agencies, and the shutdown’s impacts vary from state to state and tribal nation.
In Illinois, regularly scheduled benefits will be issued through October, according to a statement from an Illinois Department of Human Services spokesperson. Customers will be informed of changes on its website.
In Oklahoma, WIC clients will also continue to be served as usual, but the Oklahoma State Departments of Health is keeping an eye on the potential effects if the shutdown extends beyond a few weeks, external affairs manager Erica Rankin-Riley said in an email.
“We have worked internally to identify all funding sources available to keep the program operating as long as possible, should we need to,” Rankin-Riley wrote. “We are unable to speculate on further details.”
In the Citizen Potawatomi Nation located in Oklahoma, WIC Director Shelley Schneider said about 1,300 people are served monthly. The program distributes formula and diapers and gives referrals to resources like food pantries.
The tribal nation has carried forward funds from the previous fiscal year to use until the program gets funded federally. So far, Schneider said, WIC recipients haven’t been affected.
“The ones that have called, we just keep telling them, ‘Yes, we're open and yes, your benefits are still available,’” Schneider said.
Rising demand for food
Kansas City-based food bank Harvesters supplies more than 900 food pantries and other nonprofits in Kansas and Missouri. Chief Resource Officer Elizabeth Keever said more people are already struggling to get enough food, due to rising prices at the grocery store and federal changes to food benefit programs.
“Right now we’re sitting at food insecurity rates in the 27-county area that we serve higher than it’s been in a decade,” Keever said.
A quarter of the people the food bank serves have a child under 6 years old, she said.
Harvesters is preparing for more demand as federal employees expect to miss paychecks due to the shutdown, Keever said. The Trump administration is discussing eliminating back-pay for furloughed employees.
In the Kansas City area, there are 30,000 federal workers. And in Kansas, there are about 17,000 federal workers, as well as about 20,000 active duty military members expected to lose paychecks.
“We know that there are folks that are going to be deeply impacted by this shutdown,” Keever said. “And those families who rely on the WIC program…are going to really feel it.”
The Food Research & Action Center is encouraging WIC participants to call their agencies for updated information and use their benefits, attend appointments and continue as usual.
“Any type of disruption is really going to happen on an agency by agency basis,” Scully said. “But what we're seeing nationally is that, thankfully, the program is operational at this moment.”
Harvest Public Media’s Jess Savage contributed to this report.
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
