Everyone is worried right now, but the Covid-19 pandemic is a whole lot scarier for those living paycheck to paycheck, which thanks to American capitalism, is half the country. Luckily, Kerry Washington and Janelle Monáe are here to help educate you privileged assholes!
Washington took the time yesterday to share a photo of a grocery store label for Corn Flakes, marked with the acronym "WIC." "If you see something labeled "WIC" please choose another brand. People who rely on WIC products to feed their kids cannot. We're all in this together," she wrote on Twitter.
Most people know about food stamps, but fewer are aware of WIC (Women, Infants and Children), a federal aid program designed to help low-income pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding women and children under the age of five. Nearly seven million women and children currently receive WIC benefits.
Washington's point speaks to the fact that WIC vouchers or electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards are only good for kinds of foods, like baby formula, iron-fortified cereal, peanut butter, eggs, milk, cheese, dried or canned beans and others. Hmm… exactly the kinds of foods people are currently hoarding. Making it even tougher on mothers on WIC, only certain brands of various foods are an option. If WIC-approved brands (let alone whole aisles of food) sell out, WIC users will go home empty handed.
Monáe backed Washington up on this and amplified her message: "I was a WIC baby. PLEASE read labels."
We shouldn't need celebs to tell us, but please think about other people in your community before you shop. Reassuringly, both celebs' mentions are full of tweets like, "Because of your tweet I put a can of beans down and got something else without the WIC label and "Better yet, let's lift the restrictions on the WIC brands and give folks more options for they're babies."
Photo via Getty