Global tech outage impacting families’ ability to get needed support from state programs

A major technology outage is causing big problems for companies around the world, impacting everything from airlines to hospitals. It’s also making it harder for people across Ohio and in the Miami Valley to put food on the table to feed their families.

One thing the outage has impacted is the Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC).

Families to go to a WIC office for an appointment. They can leave with a debit card loaded with benefits and go straight to the grocery store. On Friday morning, WIC officers across the state quickly realized the system was offline.

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Felica and Chris Munguia, as well as their three kids, came to the WIC office at Greene County Public Health on Friday to get their card loaded but found out they won’t be able to do that right now.

“We had our appointment for 12:30 p.m., so we came here and that’s when they told us about the outage, " Felicia said. “We weren’t aware about it beforehand.”

As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00 , the outage is impacting the Munguia family.

“We’re already struggling financially since I don’t work during the summers,” Felicia said. “So it’s affecting us because we can’t go get foods that we need.”

Greene County Public Health officials told News Center 7′s John Bedell that they’re keeping WIC appointments for families. They can still check if families qualify for the program. While its normally done on a computer system, its now being done on paper.

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“The main impact that we have had is that we cannot issue the participants food benefits at the time when they come to their appointments,” Jorge Mangña, WIC Program Public Health Nutrition Manager in Greene County, said.

Mangña said they’ve been calling families with appointments to let them know about the outage and asking if they’d like to keep their appointment or move it.

Felicia claimed her family didn’t get a call and News Center 7 asked Mangña about that. He said they may have missed a call, or staff may not have called them by mistake.

Regardless, Felicia said she’ll be back and hopes the system is back up soon for so many families like hers.