Starting Monday, new mothers in Benton Harbor, Niles, Buchanan and Benton Charter Township can sign up to receive a no-strings-attached $500 payment for each of the first six months of their child’s life, along with a $1500 payment to expecting mothers.
The communities are the latest to join Rx Kids, a public-private partnership that provides new moms and new-moms-to-be with cash. As of Wednesday, it was operating in 20 Michigan communities — not counting the Berrien County communities or Detroit, which also joined the program this week.
Benton Charter Township Supervisor Cathy Yates said the financial assistance is especially needed at a time when prices are on the rise.
"Every time I go to the grocery store, things do change. Prices are up on each and every item. So, I know that this is going to be truly an asset for our community."
Yates added that the financial and health benefits provided by the program will continue to improve the community for years to come.
“It also gives me hope for tomorrow because these kids getting things that they need today, they'll be better students in school and also better leaders of our community in the future.”
Other satellite programs in Flint and Kalamazoo provide 12 months of payments to new mothers for their programs, twice the amount set to be provided in Berrien County.
Rx Kids Spokesperson Laura Cane said Berrien County could only afford to provide payments for half a year, with all programs needing to have enough funding to run the initiatives for at least three years.
The expansion comes a month after Michigan House Republicans cancelled $18.5 million in state funds for Rx Kids.
But Rx Kids Philanthropy Director Alyssa Stewart said the expansion was not affected by the cancellation.
“Expansion is still happening because we still have a $250 million investment that's part of this year's budget. And so those are the resources that are supporting this expansion, along with local philanthropic dollars."
But she added that the pullback of funds could still impact Rx Kids.
"We estimate that if that's not restored, it will mean that we can expand to 6,000 less babies than we had hoped to based on the amount of money that we believed we had in the budget."
Applicants must be at least 16 weeks pregnant or have had their baby on or after the first of the year.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
