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Harvey County health official warns WIC staffing could be strained if federal funding pause continues
Summary
Lynette Reddington, director of the Harvey County Health Department, told the board that WIC has funding for benefits through Oct. 31 but that funds for staff have been held amid the federal shutdown, leaving the department to rely on a $6,000 allotment and indirect funds to cover payroll.
Lynette Reddington, director of the Harvey County Health Department, told the Harvey County Board of Commissioners on Oct. 14 that the county’s Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program currently has benefit funding through Oct. 31 but that funds paying WIC staff have been held during the federal government shutdown.
“We did get a small allotment of about $6,000. That is not enough to cover our staff that we have for the WIC program,” Reddington said, describing the program’s local staffing structure: four staff positions (two registered nurses at 32 and 24 hours, one breastfeeding peer counselor/vendor contact at 67 percent time and a billing specialist at 20 percent), plus a dietitian contracted through Reno County for roughly eight hours a week.
Reddington said the WIC contract year runs October through September and that WIC has historically been 100 percent grant funded. She told commissioners the health department can cover staff through October using indirect funds but will reevaluate as the end of the month approaches and hopes the state will allot more money for nutrition services administration so staff pay can continue.
“The last thing that Kevin and I have talked about is letting go staff — that’s the last thing we want to do,” Reddington said. “We’re going to keep them as much as we can.”
Reddington also reported that WIC served an average of about 515 people per month in the last federal grant year, including women, infants and children up to age 5, and that the department is monitoring the situation and plans to reassess if further federal guidance arrives.
The county did not take formal action on the WIC item; Reddington framed the update as informational and said the department would continue to use available indirect funds and seek further state allocations if possible.
