Pineville

Fifty years after the first clinic opened in Pineville, Kentucky in 1974, WIC has become one of the most effective programs in American history.

Three more locations have now joined that list: Pineville, N.C.,

In January, 50 years after the very first clinic in the country that would administer the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, opened in Pineville, Kentucky, the National WIC Association’s current president, Georgia Machell, issued a warning: “As we rightly celebrate WIC’s past, we must also take great care to protect it today.”

“They didn’t go up on rent last year, but if they do this year, I might have to make a move. I might move somewhere called Pineville. It’s right outside Charlotte, maybe 10 minutes away. It’s nice, it’s quiet, low crime; pretty nice area and it’s 10 minutes away from my job.”

Fifty years ago, on an unseasonably mild January morning, the first clinic in the country that would administer the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, opened in Pineville, Kentucky out of the Bell County Health Department.