The effort, called WIC, is focused on providing nutritional supplements to vulnerable women, children and infants. Through coupons, families get access to nutritional drinks for infants, milk and fresh fruit and other basic provisions.
The support program has a budget of around eight billion dollars, equivalent to over 750 billion kronor.
The efforts are partially funded by annual federal grants from the government in Washington DC. But this year's grant has been frozen, as it would have been paid out at the same time as a divided congress forced the US to shut down and freeze large parts of the federal government apparatus on Wednesday.
The operation can continue through an emergency fund, but the money will soon run out.
We will manage for one or two weeks, but after that we are worried, says Ali Hard who is policy chief at WIC. The organization hopes that states will temporarily step in with support to help the vulnerable – grants that are however uncertain.
