More than a million low-income mothers and children in the Midwest and Great Plains rely on a national food assistance program. The Trump administration says it will help provide temporary funding to keep the program afloat, but food advocates say it’s a short-term fix.

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

See Full Page