WIC State agencies use a single-source, competitively bid system where State agencies receive rebates from manufacturers for infant formula purchased by participants with WIC benefits at retail stores. State WIC agencies use cost-containment efforts, such as infant formula rebates, to ensure competitive pricing for WIC foods, while maintaining Federal nutrition standards and quantities. All packages include foods that are high in nutrients determined by nutritional research to be lacking in the WIC target population. WIC provides seven food packages designed to meet the nutritional needs of different categories of participants. Applicants must also be at nutritional risk, as determined by a WIC-competent professional authority through a comprehensive nutrition and breastfeeding assessment. poverty level or participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). WIC applicants must have a family income at or below 185 percent of the U.S. A postpartum woman (up to 1 year if breastfeeding or 6 months if not breastfeeding),.To qualify for WIC, an applicant must be: Virgin Islands.Ĭongress authorizes a specific amount of funding annually for WIC operations and has funded WIC each year since the late 1990s to serve all eligible applicants. These agencies cover 50 States, the District of Columbia, 33 Indian Tribal Organizations, American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth Islands of the Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. WIC is administered at the Federal level by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and is administered locally by 89 WIC State agencies. Referrals to health care and other social services.Information on healthy eating, including breastfeeding promotion and support, and.The WIC Program: Background, Trends, and Economic Issues, 2015 Edition About WIC

The following explains how the WIC program works, examines program trends, describes some of the impacts of WIC, and discusses some of the major economic issues facing the program.

USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) conducts and funds studies of the WIC program and other USDA domestic food and nutrition assistance programs. Download higher resolution chart (3189 pixels by 2552, 150 dpi)

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