I don't mean to be heartless, but I'm always suspicious about these starving childhood stories, like this bag of beans deal, or scraping up nickels under the sofa to buy the kids' milk.
The WIC program has been around since the 1960's, and formally authorized in 1972. The 80's saw increased coordination among social services to enhance WIC's reach. Tell me if I'm wrong, but if you're starving in America, you're trying pretty hard to, or else you have an evil, evil parent. Nothing to do with a president.