El Paso County Public Health announced it will close two of its Women, Infants and Children centers in Colorado Springs by May 1. Clients and staff of the two locations will relocate to Public Healthís main offices at 1675 W. Garden of the Gods Road on the second floor of the Citizens Service Center.The WIC offices that will close include the clinic at 4360 Montebello Drive and the clinic at 1257 Lake Plaza Drive. The southeast clinic at 97 Widefield Blvd. in Widefield will remain open.These closures were necessary to maintain client services after Public Health lost federal funds totaling $298,654 for the WIC program. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children provides vouchers for nutritious foods to supplement the diet of pregnant women, new mothers, infants and children under the age of 5 years who meet the income guidelines and qualify as ìnutritionally at risk.î Purchases made with the redeemable vouchers put slightly more than $9 million back into the community last year.Participants also receive nutrition and breastfeeding education along with referrals to health services. El Paso County Public Health currently has 16,300 total WIC clients. There was an average caseload of 14,952 in 2010 and 14,954 in 2009.As of January 2012, the Lake Plaza Drive office had seven staff members serving 3,259 clients; and the Montebello Drive office had 11 staff members serving 5,085 clients. All clients will continue to receive services with their WIC educator at the new location.For more information about WIC, driving directions or public transit options to the Citizen Services Center, visit http://elpasocountyhealth.org.
