The $8 billion Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — a food aid program that helps more than 6 million low-income mothers and young children — will exhaust its federal money within two weeks unless the government shutdown ends, the Associated Press reports.
The circumstance would force states to use their own money to keep it afloat or risk it shutting down, according to experts.
The WIC program provides vouchers to buy infant formula, fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and other health staples.
The shutdown began last Wednesday and coincided with the start of a new fiscal year, meaning programs like WIC, which rely on annual federal government infusions of funding, are nearly out of money.
The program is currently being kept alive by a $150 million contingency fund, but experts said this could run out quickly.
