Guilford County's mobile WIC unit is meeting residents where they are

For just over three months workers at the Guilford County Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, Clinic have been hopping into a Ford Transit Van and hitting the open road. 

They’ve been meeting families outside of grocery stores, apartment complexes and libraries to deliver goods and services like nutritious food and health care referrals.

With WIC nutritionists and caseworkers onboard, the unit made its maiden trip in late April. It departed from its home base in Greensboro heading for the High Point Library. 

During a tour of the unit, the county’s WIC Director, Erin Cashwell, said since that first trip, her team has encountered clients both old and new. She said the county provides services to about 50% of all WIC-eligible residents. 

“A lot of the families that we’re seeing are families that were maybe on several years ago but maybe fell off during the pandemic and so we’re catching them, you know, getting them back on, which is great,” Cashwell said. “And then we also have participation information that we receive from the state, and our focus has really been on children — older children from one to four — and we’ve seen those numbers kind of tick up with the mobile unit out and about."

Cashwell says that initial encounter with the mobile unit serves as a starting point to services through WIC. If a county resident is eligible for the program, they go through a few basic steps inside the unit like a blood iron screening and a nutrition assessment. 

After that, care continues through visits to the program’s Greensboro offices. Cashwell says eventually, clients will be able to make appointments with the mobile unit, though that service is still in the planning stages. 

Edna Tirado, who works in the mobile unit, says she and her team are focusing on visiting the Walmarts where clients spend most of their WIC funds. 

“When people are walking in and they see WIC and they stop and look through our little window in that mobile unit, they’re asking ‘What can I do?’” Tirado said. "Suddenly you face all those people that for some reason have fallen through the crack because they stopped going to the office because they didn’t have childcare or because it was hard for them to get there. They're like ‘Well I’m here, I might as well go ahead and do it.'”

The mobile unit’s next stop will be from 12:30-4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 14, at the Walmart at 2107 Pyramids Village Blvd. in Greensboro. 

For more details, visit the county’s WIC website. 
 

Santiago Ochoa covers healthcare for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. Follow him on X: @santi8a98