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The Kensington Safeway has reapplied for its WIC license after being denied last year by the federal program because its prices were too high on staple goods.

Officially known as The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, WIC is a program of the Food and Nutrition Services branch of the United States Department of Agriculture that provides grants to states to help subsidize the purchase of staple foods such as milk, eggs, peanut butter, beans and canned fish for low income women with children under 5 years old.

The Kensington Safeway reapplied for its license last week after the state program denied it last year because the prices on WIC-eligible items exceeded 125 percent of those being charged at other large area commercial stores.

"We can't have, you know, high-end Gucci vendors," said Deborah Morgan, chief of information technology at the Maryland WIC program. "We're bound by regulation to keep our prices competitive."

Safeway spokesman Craig Muckle said signs in English and Spanish explaining that the store could not accept WIC were posted about a month ago because about 20 people weekly were coming into the store inquiring about it, he said.

"They were just coming in and shopping and didn't find out (WIC was not accepted) until they got to the check stand," Muckle said.

There are 64 eligible WIC vendors in the county, concentrated largely in Rockville and Silver Spring. Only one is located within the Kensington ZIP Code, a Shoppers on Nicholson Lane. The nearest WIC location to the Kensington Safeway is a Giant in Wheaton about 1.2 miles away, followed by a Safeway about a mile and a half away. The third closest was location was more than four miles away in Silver Spring.

Morgan said stores are not required to apply for WIC licensing, and it was up to Safeway to decide whether to lower its prices and try again.

Sixteen of the WIC vendors in the county are Safeway stores, and Muckle likened the price disparity between the Kensington Safeway and other stores to those seen between gas station franchises, which may have higher or lower prices per gallon of gas. Muckle speculated the differences may be due to variables in things like rent or energy costs. He said a comprehensive price reduction program throughout Safeway stores may have lowered the prices enough that the new license application may be approved.

"We're interested in serving WIC clients so we did reapply," Muckle said.