Mower County Public Health will likely discontinue holding Women, Infants and Children (WIC) clinics in Grand Meadow and LeRoy.

The state is changing how they operate the WIC program to be live communication through the internet. While Margene Gunderson, director of community health services, said the Austin office will be able to transition smoothly, she said Public Health Services may discontinue the WIC sites in Grand Meadow and LeRoy.

WIC is a program that provides food vouchers to support nutrition for eligible pregnant women, young mothers, babies and young children. WIC clinics don’t include any treatment, as it’s designed to support nutrition.

While Gunderson said they’ve always taken pride in serving these people outside of Austin, she said many of the people from those towns travel to Austin for such services. The WIC locations in LeRoy and Grand Meadow are only open about once every three months, while the office in Austin is open three days a week.

Public health is surveying patients concerning this issue, Gunderson said. Many patients come to Austin because it’s open more frequently.

“What we’re finding is that people are migrating to our Austin WIC clinic anyways,” she said.

Gunderson said they’re going to try to survey the people who use the program for feedback concerning the move.