Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

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Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

What It Means

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, popularly known as WIC, is a national program in the United States whose mission is to improve the nutrition of low-income women, infants, and children under the age of five who are deemed to be at nutritional risk. The premise of the program is that early intervention in the health and nutrition of children during critical periods of growth and development can help prevent future medical and developmental problems.

Funded primarily by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), WIC is administered at the federal level by FNS (Food and Nutrition Service), an office within the USDA, and at the state level by designated WIC agencies. WIC is available throughout the United States, with specific agencies dedicated to 34 Indian Tribal Organizations (ITOs). It is also available in U.S territories, such as American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. In all there are 90 state agencies that administer the WIC program through 2,200 local agencies and 9,000 clinic sites.

WIC attempts to supplement the diets of low-income women and children by providing foods that are rich in the nutrients they most often lack, such as protein, iron, calcium, and vitamins A and C. Commonly provided WIC foods include infant formula, infant and adult cereal, milk, cheese, eggs, peanut butter, juice, and dried beans or peas. Breast-feeding mothers also receive carrots and canned tuna.

In most states WIC participants are given food vouchers or checks with which to purchase specific WIC-approved foods at participating supermarkets and small grocery stores. Retailers submit the vouchers to their bank, and the bank then submits them to the WIC state agency to receive reimbursement for the retail or shelf price of the WIC items. In 2004 the average monthly retail cost of a WIC food package was about $55 per individual.

Nutrition counseling is another significant component of the WIC program. Individual and group sessions focus on educating pregnant and postpartum (those who have already given birth) women about the basic food groups, the elements of a healthy diet for pregnancy, important nutrients for mother and baby, nutrients contained in WIC foods, and how to shop for and prepare healthy meals. WIC also provides its clients with referrals for health care and social services that are critical for childhood and family well-being, such as immunizations, support programs for quitting smoking and substance abuse, parenting classes, child support enforcement resources, and others.

WIC’s services are free of charge to participating clients. In 2007 WIC provided benefits to more than 8.1 million women and children each month.

When Did It Begin

Before WIC was established, low-income mothers often had to take drastic measures, such as diluting baby formula, to make food supplies last for their children. As a result many infants and young children developed malnutrition-related health problems, such as compromised development, anemia (a deficiency of red blood cells in the bloodstream), and tooth decay. Inadequate nutrition in pregnancy led to more premature births and babies born with low birth weight.

With the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, the government instituted a free-breakfast program in public schools and authorized other measures to improve the nutrition of school-age children. Still, the act did not address the needs of pregnant, breast-feeding, and postpartum mothers or of infants and young children.

In response to a national survey that found anemia and substandard growth to be common problems among young children in low-income families, WIC was established in 1972 as an amendment to the Child Nutrition Act. The program was designed to counteract the negative effects of poor nutrition on the health of low-income individuals during pregnancy, after birth, and in the early childhood years. Originally conceived as a two-year pilot program, WIC was permanently authorized in 1974. When it began, WIC served 88,000 people. By 1985 the program was assisting 3.1 million.

In 2004 average monthly participation in WIC had grown to about 7.9 million women and children, and the program’s annual budget was $5 billion. That year nearly 50 percent of all infants in the United States, 25 percent of all children between the ages of one and four, and 25 percent of all pregnant women participated in the WIC program.

More Detailed Information

As with many other government assistance programs, applicants must meet certain requirements in order to receive WIC benefits. Women interested in applying for WIC are advised to schedule an appointment with their state or local agency to find out if they are eligible.

To qualify for WIC benefits, a woman must be pregnant or she must be postpartum (up to six months after the birth or the end of the pregnancy) or breast-feeding (up to the infant’s first birthday) or both. A baby qualifies as an infant until its first birthday, and children are eligible up to their fifth birthday. Also, applicants must live in the state where they apply for benefits. Applicants must meet the income requirement (earning a wage that is at or below a certain level) determined by each state agency. Finally, applicants must be at nutritional risk. A nutritional risk is defined as any medical or dietary problem that is caused by or associated with the food a person eats (or doesn’t eat). To determine whether or to what degree an applicant is at risk, WIC provides free health screenings to measure height and weight, conducts a simple blood analysis, and reviews each participant’s medical history and dietary intake.

If the applicant meets all of these criteria, then she or he is eligible for WIC benefits. WIC is a short-term program. An eligible individual usually receives WIC benefits for between six months and a year, after which time she or he must reapply.

In addition to providing actual nutritional supplements (food), WIC strives to improve women’s knowledge of nutritional issues through education and counseling. Perhaps WIC’s biggest and most long-standing priority in this area is raising awareness about the benefits of breast-feeding (which are not only nutritional but also economical and emotional) for both mother and baby. Scientific research has overwhelmingly concluded that there is no better food than breast milk during an infant’s first year of life. WIC seeks to educate women about the importance of breast-feeding and provides counseling and support to help them become comfortable and proficient with breast-feeding methods. WIC also provides incentives to encourage mothers to breast-feed, including higher priority for certification and longer access to WIC services than nonnursing mothers, enhanced food packages (which include butter, as well as extra milk, eggs, cheese, and meat), and free breast pumps and other nursing equipment to support the initiation and continuation of breast-feeding.

In its efforts to connect mothers and children with other valuable resources for health and well-being, WIC also provides immunization screenings and referrals for immunization services. Immunization against diseases (such as diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B, polio, meningitis, measles, mumps, and rubella) is an important aspect of children’s health, but immunization rates for children in low-income households have persistently lagged behind the rates for children in middle- and high-income households. To improve these rates, in 2000 WIC implemented a new policy of reviewing the immunization records of all infants and children under the age of two at WIC certification visits. Although WIC seeks to raise parents’ awareness about immunizations their child might be lacking and serve as a conduit between clients and health-care providers, the receipt of WIC benefits is in no way contingent upon immunization records or an infant or child’s immunization status.

Recent Trends

One of WIC’s fundamental goals is to encourage mothers to breast-feed their infants. For women who choose not to breast-feed, however, WIC provides infant formula at no cost. In the mid-1980s infant formula accounted for nearly 40 percent of WIC’s total food expenses. At that time state WIC agencies looking for ways to contain costs devised the infant formula rebate program, first implemented in Tennessee. Under this system, formula manufacturers bid against one another for the exclusive rights to supply infant formula to WIC in a given state. In return for access to a huge number of consumers in that state, the manufacturer that wins the bid agrees to give WIC a rebate (a partial refund) for each can of formula purchased with vouchers by WIC participants.

The infant formula rebate program proved hugely effective for reducing WIC’s food costs, which enabled the program to provide services to more women and children than ever before. According to a 2003 report before Congress by the Weston A. Price Foundation (a nonprofit that focuses on nutrition and health), infant formula rebates provided WIC with $32 million in additional funding in 1988. By 2001 the amount of additional funding from formula rebates had reached $1.5 billion, and WIC was able to add 2.1 million new participants to its program that year.

Unfortunately, however, the unintended result of the rebate program has been to greatly increase the amount of formula consumed by WIC participants, and critics charge that WIC has inadvertently provided a disincentive, or deterrent, to breast-feeding by supplying free infant formula. While the percentage of breast-feeding WIC mothers made slow but steady increases during the 1990s, breast-feeding in the WIC program continued to lag well behind national averages. In the first years of the new century WIC began seeking new ways to promote breast-feeding among its participants. In 2002, for example, based on research that showed that fathers have a significant influence on mothers’ decisions about breast-feeding, WIC launched the Peer Dad Program, an initiative to educate fathers about the benefits and methods of breast-feeding so that they would be better equipped to support their babies’ mothers in their decisions.

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Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

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