• We began our WIC program in 1975, with a staff of 10 and a monthly caseload of approximately 8,000 participants. But we had no stand-alone WIC centers; rather we delivered WIC services in public health centers, churches, libraries and community centers.
• Our first dedicated WIC office, located in South Gate, opened its doors in 1991.
• In 1992 our Figueroa WIC office burned down in the civil unrest following the acquittal of police officers charged with the beating of Rodney King.
• Since 1985 we have distributed more than 24 million checks for nutritious foods to our WIC participants.
• In 2012 alone, we provided 1,147,302 food checks to the women, infants and children taking part in the health education and promotion programs at our WIC offices.
• Our breastfeeding peer counselor program has been operating continuously since 1991. It was created with the assistance of La Leche League.
• We have tracked the immunization up-to-date rates for 24-month-olds at our WIC offices from 1998 to the present. These rates increased from a low of 63% in 1998 to a high of 82% in 2004. Since 2004 they have remained at 80% or above, attaining or exceeding the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) national goal of 80%.
• Since 1997, we have tracked and assessed the immunization records of more than 300,000 two-year-olds.
• In 2008, we began tracking the flu immunization rates of prenatal women participating in health education programs at our WIC offices. Their rates have increased from 9.3% in 2008 to 24.6% in 2012.
• Among our 160 staff members are 110 who have worked at South LA Health Projects for 15 years or more, and 28 who have worked here more than 25 years.
• Our staff is ethnically and linguistically diverse. We hail from many regions of the Unites States, including the territory of Puerto Rico, as well as Belize, Columbia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Spain and the West Indies (Island of Antigua).
• We opened our main office in Inglewood in 1979 and our first WIC office in South Gate in 1991. Since then we have opened 10 additional WIC offices in this order: Figueroa WIC, Florence WIC, Lynwood WIC, Bell Gardens WIC, Cudahy WIC, Huntington Park WIC, Compton WIC, Paramount WIC, Central WIC, and, most recently, Manchester WIC in 2011.