Brittany Copeland is 18, single, and pregnant.
She's also receives benefits from WIC, a program which provides low income working mothers with foodstuffs.
"It helps me with groceries and food and when the baby gets here it will help me with formula which is $24 per can," Copeland told 2 On Your Side.
Copeland came to a community forum sponsored by Erie County Legislators who are opposed to a move by County Executive Chris Collins for the county to divest itself of the program.
Though Copeland came believing the program was being eliminated entirely, the Collins Administration says nothing could be further from the truth.
According to a spokesperson the administration instead told the state to find another agency to administer WIC because while the costs, including employee salaries, are fully reimbursed the county still has to pay life time health care for the workers.
Locally some other non for profit agencies also administer WIC programs, including Kaleida Health and Catholic Charities.
Erie County WIC workers staged a rally earlier in the day to protest the move by Collins.
They insisted their opposition has nothing to do with preserving their jobs, but instead is rooted out of concern for their clients.
"It's a mandated program for the state so it (WIC) will still exist," conceded Diane Cwick, a WIC Aid Supervisor.
But Cwick firmly believes whoever might take over the program will not be able to administer it as effectively as Erie County has done over the decades.
"It's going to be a disaster and I believe the person who takes it over is going to be totally overwhelmed because to handle 16 to 18,000 clients... it takes a long time to get as efficient and proficient as we are," Cwick said.
Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz says he's not sure if any single agency can take over the entire operation.
"From what I'm hearing, nobody is interested in picking up this program to the same degree the county provides," he said.
And while Collins argues that the county should not be competing to administer non-mandated programs with other agencies which might be ready, willing, and able to do so, Poloncarz counters that county government is "all about" providing services.
"We don't make chairs, we don't make microphones, we provide services and it comes down to a question of what services the county should be providing especially at a time of deep recession," he said.
If WIC should be parceled out to several agencies to run Cwick worries confused participants, not sure about where to go for benefits and appointments, will simply walk away from the program risking the nutrition needs of their young children.
Cwick also predicted the number of such displaced participants would be "in the thousands".
Asked if it wasn't reasonable to expect them to be able to figure out where their new benefit site would be she said, "No. We had moved one site move last year and we still haven't recouped the clients we lost."
"They don't have time to search and survey," Cwick continued, without offering any explanation as to how recipients came to find the offices they currently visit in the first place.
Cwick is backed in her stance by Erie County Legislator Michelle Iannello (D-Kenmore), who as a young single mother was once herself a WIC recipient.
"Any time you close an office, move an office, or change anything there's always some kind of a loss. And while there are other agencies running WIC programs I believe Erie County workers do it best."
However, as a WIC recipient who holds a part time job as a bill collector and attends classes at Erie Community College, Copeland doesn't necessarily agree.
She's not only confident she could figure out where to report for benefits, but also says she has no preference as to whether Erie County or some other agency runs the WIC program.
"Honestly it doesn't matter who runs it, as long as it's being run," she said.
