Families enrolled in the state’s Best Beginnings Child Care Scholarship will now be automatically eligible for the Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, program.
WIC provides food assistance, nutrition and breastfeeding counseling as well as other health services. The program is for low-income pregnant women and families with children younger than five years old.
Families who receive child care benefits can call their local WIC office to enroll.
State health officials say both programs serve the same families. The change aims to make it easier for families to receive benefits.
More than 13,000 women and children are enrolled in WIC, but about a little over half of families that are eligible don’t participate in the program.