By Mike Voorheis, Wilmington Star News
New Hanover County was one of the first eight counties in North Carolina to transition its WIC program into the electronic Crossroads system.
The new system solves some inefficiencies in the WIC intake process. Unlike the NC Fast system, which overhauled the state’s food stamp system but was beset by massive computer problems, the Crossroads system has gone rather smoothly, said Nancy Nail, nutrition services supervisor for New Hanover County.
WIC stands for Women, Infants and Children, a federal program that provides supplementary nutrition for young children and their mothers.
Nail said health department workers trained for a week in Raleigh before the system went live on May 27.
Electronic records have replaced the paper forms that applicants used to fill out. One of the biggest advances is that applicants can now be entered as a family and paid with a single check. Before Crossroads, each mother and each child had to have separate forms and payments.