An assistance program facing eviction from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station has found an ally in U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.

Murray is reaching out to the secretary of defense in efforts to prevent the closure of the Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, program on NAS Whidbey.

The WIC program is among non-military entities that have moved, or are being moved, off base.

“I continue to hear from constituents on Whidbey Island about the impact the closure of such an important facility will have on service members, their spouses and their young families,” Murray said, “and as someone who has fought for years to increase families’ access to WIC, I find it absolutely unacceptable to impose any new barriers to this critically important program.”

The federal government decided to stop paying for non-federal agencies to use buildings on base rent-and-utility free as a result of a recent Government Accountability Office finding.

In her letter to the secretary of defense, Murray noted with dismay the large number of military families who rely on WIC.

“I know you agree our service members have sacrificed much for our nation,” Murray said. “It is deeply troubling that many military families have to rely on a program to provide supplemental healthy foods in the first place.”

The base office serves more than 800 service members, spouses and dependents who qualify for assistance and whose services may be displaced.

Community Action of Skagit, which administers the program on base, is facing the tough choice of either moving its office off base or passing its clients along to other agencies.

“I’ve very tough,” said Wende Dolstad, the base’s WIC coordinator. “We’ve build up a tremendous relationship with the people we serve.”

The office’s current location on the Seaplane Base is located near the military’s FOCUS program, which supports family resiliency, and the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society, which provides financial assistance and education.

“The base families feel safe coming because we’re on base and then they get all these wrap-around things,” Dolstad said.

The idea of opening an Oak Harbor office is still “on the table” Dolstad said, but her agency will need to make a decision before their Sept. 30 deadline.

If they decide to close, the state would reallocate the funding to one or more nearby WIC offices including the one run by Island County Public Health in Oak Harbor, as well as programs in Anacortes and Mount Vernon.

Murray is asking Secretary Ashton B. Carter to ensure the Department of Defense arranges long-term space for the WIC office on NAS Whidbey.

Meanwhile, Dolstad said, the Seaplane Base office will continue to provide full services and facilitate a future transition when necessary.

“Although we are hopeful that this intervention will allow the WIC office to stay on base, the office will coordinate with the state WIC program to transition current WIC clients to an off base office as necessary in the fall,” Dolstad said.