Sedgwick County WIC Launches EBT Benefits Card

Women, Infants & Children (WIC), Kansas’ public health nutrition program, is offering its families a new way to shop for WIC food benefits using an EBT (electronic benefit transaction) card.  Due to a successful pilot program with Shawnee County WIC families last fall, Sedgwick County Division of Health WIC will begin offering the EBT card to its clients today, March 7, 2018. 

Previously, participants of WIC used paper checks to buy the healthy WIC foods. Shopping with the new card will be easier and WIC families will be able to better track their monthly food balance.  Participants will have access to a new WICShopper Smart Phone App allowing them to scan a food’s bar code to determine if it is a WIC allowed food. 

WIC provides services at over 100 clinic sites throughout Kansas and serves 53,000 women, infants, and children under age five. These WIC families shop at more than 300 Kansas grocery stores and spend $49 million a year with their WIC food benefits. In Sedgwick County, 12,495 women, infants, and children (under the age of five) use WIC and 43 local grocery stores partner in providing healthy foods to participants. "eWIC will be a wonderful addition for our local program because it will make shopping for WIC food benefits more convenient and easier for participants and cashiers," said Adrienne Byrne, Sedgwick County Division of Health Director. "It will also simplify enrollment and participation in the program. The Sedgwick County WIC program is really excited to bring eWIC to our community.” 

Sedgwick County WIC has been offering participant-centered nutrition education, healthy food, breastfeeding support and has been serving as a gateway for preventative health for over 40 years. There are current appointment openings with Sedgwick County WIC. For more information about the program, visit https://www.sedgwickcounty.org/health/services-and-providers/women-infants-and-children-wic/ or call 316-660-7444.