The parents of a 20-month-old boy
who died of malnutrition may have violated WIC rules.
Carla Adkins, of Ashton, and Jimmie
Edwards, of Milton
Investigators claim the couple
would take WIC products and return the child’s infant formula to a store in
exchange for money which they used to buy meth. They were allegedly giving the
baby whole milk which he was not able to properly digest and caused his death.
The Women, Infants, Children
program provides infant formula to low income families who can’t afford to
purchase it on their own. Cindy Pillo, the acting director of the Office of
Nutrition Services with the state DHHR says recipients go through a thorough
vetting process and during each certification visit must sign a participation
agreement which includes the guidelines and rules of the program.
“We also have several (points) and
one of them is ‘Do not trade or sell WIC food or formula with your WIC
benefits,’” stressed Pillo.
Parents who need to exchange
WIC-purchased formula must do so at a WIC clinic where everything is
documented. The returns are exchanged only for products that the children can
use. Selling them to stores or over the Internet is not allowed.
“It is against federal WIC policy
to do that,” said Pillo.
There are also guidelines for
stores who sell formula in exchange for WIC vouchers. Stores cannot “Knowingly
exchange or refund money for WIC food items.”
Pillo said WIC does look out for
potential fraud.
“We do have a program integrity
unit that reviews any abuse allegations. We also have a compliance person in
our compliance unit that does compliance buys. In grocery stores, anytime we
have any allegations of of abuse, we investigate those also,” stressed Pillo.
Pillo could not speak directly to
the case involving Adkins and Edwards or whether they had been under
investigation.
Adkins and Edwards remain in jail
on $500,000 bail each.
