Montgomery County Welcomes WIC Clients to New Clinic

Military Families more than One-Third of County's WIC Clients

CLARKSVILLE – Tennessee Department of Health Chief Medical Officer David Reagan, MD, PhD, today joined other local and state officials to celebrate the grand opening of the new Women, Infants and Children clinic at the Montgomery County Health Department facility in Clarksville. The new 8,000 square foot wing provides an expanded and welcoming clinic space for families participating in the WIC program.

"WIC is so important in providing food security to the thousands of mothers and children we serve in Montgomery County and across the state," Reagan said. "We are pleased to welcome our WIC clients to this new facility which will allow us to better connect these families with nutrition education and other needed health resources."

Montgomery County's WIC clinic is Tennessee's largest rural WIC clinic, and has served more than 10,600 unique patients in the past year. In addition to the civilian community, Montgomery County's WIC program also provides support for the nearby Fort Campbell Army post, which is the home of the largest United States Army military combat unit, two prestigious Special Operations Command units and the only Air Assault Division in the world. Military families make up 35 percent of the WIC participants in Montgomery County.

The WIC program also provides an important financial benefit to the community. More than $3.7 million in WIC vouchers have been redeemed in Montgomery County during the past year. On average, more than $309,600 in WIC vouchers are redeemed by Montgomery County retail establishments every month.

The new WIC clinic in Montgomery County is an 8,000 square foot facility which provides nine examination and consultation rooms, a mothers' room for breastfeeding, a state-of-the-art classroom and kiosks for online education. The clinic addition is the result of collaboration among federal, state, county and local government agencies. MontgomeryCounty received $2.1 million in special needs funding from the United States Department of Agriculture in 2010 to improve services to WIC clients. The city of Clarksville and Montgomery County worked together to secure land for the expansion project.

The WIC Special Supplemental Nutrition Program is a federal program designed to provide supplemental food to low-income pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women, infants and children until the age of five. WIC in Tennessee is administered by the Department of Health. Learn more about the program online at http://health.state.tn.us/wic/index.htm.