Starting in August, Minnesota’s Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program will begin offering new healthy food choices to more than 140,000 women, infants and young children across the state.

The program will include fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables, whole grain products, jarred baby foods, soy beverages and tofu.

Skim milk and 1 percent milk will be offered to all women and children over the age of 2, and organic fruits, vegetables and other organic WIC-allowed products that are priced similarly to their non-organic counterparts will also be available.

“The new WIC food choices will improve the health of Minnesota mothers and children and reduce a child’s risk of chronic disease by supporting healthy eating early in life,” said Minnesota Commissioner of Health Sanne Magnan, in a Minnesota Department of Health news release.

The choices provided follow changes made by the federal WIC program and reflect the most recent dietary guidelines for Americans, according to the release.

Freeborn County Public Health Director Lois Ahern said the new food packages address the rising rate of obesity by encouraging more fruits and vegetables and less processed foods.

“I think the changes will help improve the diets of our pregnant and postpartum women, as well as the children, because it’s going to include a wider variety of fresh products,” Ahern stated.

The new food packages go hand-in-hand with an already-in-place Minnesota Department of Agriculture program that is distributed through WIC, which gives farmers market food vouchers to WIC clients. This will expand on those efforts.

“I think it’s great,” said Amy Pleimling, registered dietitian with Albert Lea’s Hy-Vee. “What a great chance to get more nutrition into a certain population. I think that that’s probably something that could benefit from improvements.”

The new food packages will help the families who utilize it to work toward healthier living and disease prevention, Pleimling said.

Plus, if children see their parents make healthier food choices, there’s a good chance those habits will rub off on them as well, she said.

In addition to reflecting the most recent dietary guidelines, the changes to the WIC program also encourage breastfeeding and support infant feeding practices recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants receive human milk exclusively for the first six months of life and with other foods to a year or more.

Only 23 percent of children in Minnesota are breastfed at the age of 1, according to a Freeborn County Public Health WIC Office news release.

Under the new food package guidelines, women who exclusively breastfeed will receive the best WIC food package available, including fresh fruits and vegetables.

After six months, when complementary foods are introduced, infants who are exclusively breastfed can obtain the largest infant food package available, including infant fruits, vegetables and meats.

“WIC officials hope these changes promote greater rates of breastfeeding, which is important for infant and maternal health, the Freeborn County news release states. “Breastfeeding without supplementing is important for establishing milk supply and protecting the infant’s health.”

In addition to offering food to women and children in need, the Freeborn County WIC office offers individual and group classes to pregnant women to ensure that they have a good knowledge base of breastfeeding and can begin doing so with confidence.

Then after a baby’s birth, many mothers often return to WIC to get their questions answered about breastfeeding and nutrition.