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WIC Program

Women, Infants and Children

What is WIC?

Our WIC Program

Baby-Led Weaning

Welcome To WIC

WIC is a special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children. We upload food benefits to a WIC card and provide foods such as fruits, vegetables, eggs, milk, bread, tortillas, pasta, rice, cereal, oatmeal, tuna, juice, yogurt, beans, peanut butter, formula, and cheese depending on the food package.

Who qualifies:

  • Infants and children under 5 years old
  • Pregnant women
  • Foster parents with children under 5 years old
  • Working parents with a child under 5 years old
  • Single parents with a child under 5 years old
  • Breastfeeding mothers until your baby is 1 year old
  • Non breastfeeding women until you baby is 6 months old
  • Recent pregnancy loss for six months after pregnancy ends for women
  • Military families with children under 5 years old
  • Caretakers with children under 5 years old

Other qualifications:

  • Live in California
  • Have Medi-cal
  • Income based

Why WIC ?

Besides delicious, nutritious food, WIC provides you and your family with breastfeeding help, education to help you and your family make better choices, help with picky eaters, provide up to date infant information, help wean children off the bottle, support pregnant moms, provide referrals to other programs that may benefit you, and so much more! We have 8 locations in Riverside and San Bernardino County.

What next?


Call your WIC office at (909) 864-1097 ext. 1803 to get started.

We will let you know if you qualify and what you need to bring. We can’t wait to hear from you!

2024 Nutrition Calendar

2024 WIC Calendar

Breast Feeding Support

WIC offers support and information about breastfeeding your baby. The California WIC Program promotes, supports and protects exclusive breastfeeding for approximately the first six months of life, and continued breastfeeding for at least the first year. We also have trained staff that will help you with any breastfeeding challenges you may be having so that your infant can get the best nutrition possible.

Benefits of Breastfeeding

Human milk is uniquely suited for human infants. Babies were born to be breastfed. Human milk is easy to digest and contains more than 200 components that babies need in the early months of life.


Factors in breast milk protect infants from a wide variety of illnesses. Children who have been breastfed have less risk of becoming overweight or obese, even as adults. Research has shown that children who had been breastfed had higher IQs. Breastfeeding saves lives. Lack of breastfeeding is a risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Breastfeeding saves lives

  • Lack of breastfeeding is a risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
  • Human milk protects premature infants from life-threatening gastrointestinal disease.
  • Breastfed children have lower risk of dying before their first birthday.

Breastfed infants are healthier

  • Formula fed infants have twice the risk of having ear infections in the first year than infants who are exclusively breastfed for at least 4 months.
  • Breastfeeding reduces the incidence, and lessens the severity of a large number of infections, including pneumonia and meningitis in infants.
  • Breastfeeding protects infants against a variety of illnesses, such as diarrhea and infant botulism.
  • Breastfed babies have less chance of allergies, asthma and eczema.
  • Evidence suggests that exclusive breastfeeding for at least two months protects susceptible children from Type I insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (DDM).
  • Breastfeeding may reduce the risk for subsequent inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and childhood cancers.

Breastfeeding helps mothers recover from childbirth

  • Breastfeeding helps the uterus to shrink to its pre-pregnancy state and reduces the amount of blood lost after delivery.
  • Mothers who breastfeed for at least 3 months may lose more weight than mothers who do not breastfeed.
  • Breastfeeding mothers usually resume their menstrual cycles 20 to 30 weeks later than mothers who do not breastfeed.

Breastfeeding helps mothers recover from childbirth

  • Breastfeeding helps the uterus to shrink to its pre-pregnancy state and reduces the amount of blood lost after delivery.
  • Mothers who breastfeed for at least 3 months may lose more weight than mothers who do not breastfeed.
  • Breastfeeding mothers usually resume their menstrual cycles 20 to 30 weeks later than mothers who do not breastfeed.

Breastfeeding is economical

  • The cost of infant formula has increased 150 percent since the 1980’s.
  • Breastfeeding reduces health care costs.

Breastfeeding is environmentally sound

  • Unlike infant formula, breastfeeding requires no fossil fuels for its manufacture or preparation.
  • Breastfeeding reduces pollutants created as by-products during the manufacture of plastics for bottles and metal for cans to contain infant formula.
  • Breastfeeding reduces the burden on our landfills, as there are no cans to throw away.

WIC can help you with breastfeeding.

Find out if you qualify. WIC serves low-income pregnant women,

breastfeeding and new moms, and children under 5 years old.