A handwritten whiteboard sign. Bright fluorescent lighting. A colorful play mat in the corner. Moana playing silently on the TV. Blank walls, but plans to put up posters.
This is what welcomes visitors to the Fort Liberty Women, Infant and Children clinic since moving to its permanent location at the Joel Clinic on Logistics Street last month. Clients have said the brighter, more private space is an improvement from the clinic’s old location in the Public Health Annex on Blackjack Street, according to Detrice Rogers, the site supervisor.
In the improved space, the clinic run by the Cumberland County Department of Public Health continues to address food insecurity experienced by soldiers and their families on Fort Liberty. The new location “highlights the importance of accessible and comprehensive healthcare services for all residents,” according to a post on Fort Liberty’s official Facebook page.
WIC is a federally funded supplemental nutrition program. Ten thousand clinics across the U.S. and its territories provide money for healthy foods, breastfeeding support and nutrition education to people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, non-breastfeeding and in postpartum, and with children five years old or younger.
The Fort Liberty WIC clinic has served over 6,000 clients since it opened in March 2023. In August alone, the clinic saw 535 participants. So far this year, visits to the Fort Liberty WIC clinic represent almost 10% of all visits across the county’s four WIC clinics in Fayetteville, Spring Lake and on Fort Liberty. The clinic has the lowest appointment no-show rate across all county WIC clinics.
Rogers also oversees the county’s Hope Mills and Spring Lake WIC clinics. She recalled one Fort Liberty WIC clinic participant, a male soldier with a wife and three kids, who had a permanent change of station from Germany to Fort Liberty. Despite the Army offering partial reimbursements for moving costs, the soldier exhausted his funds.
“He stated that it was, ‘Either I pay for my family to have somewhere to stay or I pay for food,’” Rogers said.
The soldier said someone told him where the WIC office was — still on Blackjack Street at the time — and to go “try WIC out.”
“We didn’t know at the time until after we processed him in that his situation was as bad [as it was],” recalled Rogers. “And on his way out the door, he told staff, ‘If it wasn’t for y’all, my family wouldn’t have ate today.’”
A quarter of all U.S. active-duty military face food insecurity, based on the 2018 and 2020 populations analyzed in a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture study. On Fort Liberty, over 31% of soldiers and their family members said they had trouble accessing enough food according to reporting from The Assembly.
Connecting military families with WIC is personal for Rogers. She used to receive WIC. She has family in the military.
“It’s exciting to me to know like, OK, we’re doing something big,” said Rogers. “To me, I feel like we’re doing something real big in Cumberland County.”
The Joel Clinic is the county’s second attempt at having a WIC clinic on post. The idea to reestablish Fort Liberty’s WIC clinic came from a 2021 community survey where two-thirds of respondents said they worried their household would run out of food before they had the resources to purchase more.
“I don’t think people realize that military families deal with food insecurities,” Rogers said.
Another motivator was the 2021 Cumberland County Food Environment Assessment Report, said Amy Lo, who serves as the Food Policy Council liaison for the county’s public health department. The report highlighted the lack of sites like grocery stores and farmer’s markets, that provide healthy food options on and near Fort Liberty.
For its efforts to address food insecurity on Fort Liberty, the clinic received an Excellence in Innovation award from the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. The Fort Liberty WIC staff also established the Military WIC Office Council, which meets monthly with national and international U.S. military installations and local health staff to guide others in connecting military families with WIC.
“Cumberland County has really led the way” with its council and helping others set up their own clinics, said Dr. Jennifer Green, director of Cumberland County’s Department of Public Health at the Board of Health meeting on Aug. 20.
To be eligible for WIC in Cumberland County a person must meet certain criteria, including income level. The county’s WIC eligibility webpage emphasizes that the military’s basic housing allowance and other forms of special pay do not count toward the service member’s income.
“If they [soldiers and families] are unsure, just make an appointment with us to assess eligibility,” said Tamra Morris, deputy director of the county’s Department of Public Health.
The Fort Liberty WIC clinic is open for appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. If you are a service member and want to find out if you are eligible for WIC, see Military Family Advisory Network’s WIC page or call the Fort Liberty WIC clinic at 910-321-6420.
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the CityView News Fund.
“lack of grocery stores & farmers markets,” for soldiers, this should not be an issuer; the post commissary has plenty of healthy options. Additional option is the DFAC. Married soldiers receive BAS but still can eat at the DFAC along with their family, a very inexpensive meal.