Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Michael Wolf visited the Maternal and Family Health Services, Inc. (MFHS) Lehigh Valley WIC Nutrition Center in Allentown on July 11th. The WIC (Women, Infants and Children) Nutrition Program is administered in Pennsylvania by the Department of Health and this visit was an opportunity for Secretary Wolf to see how this program is delivered at the local level.
WIC serves 250,000 women, infants and children in Pennsylvania. The Lehigh Valley WIC Center is one of the largest centers in the state, serving more than 6,200 participants. Secretary Wolf toured the center, met with some of the staff, and discussed opportunities for WIC to partner with other Department of Health programs to have an even greater impact on the families MFHS serves.
WIC is the nation’s premier public health and nutrition education program with an overall goal to influence lifetime nutrition through positive health behaviors.  In addition to vouchers for nutritious foods, WIC participants receive nutrition education, breastfeeding support, immunization record checks, iron deficiency screening, farmer’s market vouchers, and referrals for other health and social services.
Secretary Wolf also had the opportunity to view the MFHS health education and referral kiosk system.  The kiosk is an innovative tool that provides health education for MFHS program participants and a referral system to help guide participants to other available services. These bilingual self-service touch-screen kiosks feature easy to understand information, interactive quizzes, surveys and videos, creating a new way to reach health consumers with critical information.