The SNAP E&T pilot projects give Congress, USDA, and states the opportunity to test innovative strategies and approaches that connect low-income households to good paying jobs and thereby reduce their reliance on public assistance.
WIC Participant and Program Characteristics 2018 summarizes the demographic characteristics of participants nationwide in April 2018. It includes information on participant income and nutrition risk characteristics, estimates breastfeeding initiation rates for WIC infants, and describes WIC members of migrant farm-worker families.
Section 4022 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 authorized and funded the SNAP E&T pilots, which enabled the USDA Food and Nutrition Service and states to expand SNAP E&T programs and test innovative strategies to connect SNAP participants with good-paying jobs, thereby increasing their incomes and reducing the need for nutrition assistance benefits. This is the fifth annual report to Congress.
The WIC program provides a combination of direct nutritional supplementation, nutrition education and counseling, and increased access to health care and social service providers for pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women; infants; and children up to the age of five years. WIC seeks to improve fetal development and reduce the incidence of low birthweight, short gestation, and anemia through intervention during the prenatal period. Infants and children who are at nutritional or health risk receive food supplements, nutrition education, and access to health care services to maintain and improve their health and development.
WIC provides supplemental foods, nutrition education and access to health care to pregnant, breastfeeding and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age five. Since its inception in the early 1970’s, the program has received fairly widespread support and it has grown in size to serve 7.4 million participants in FY 1998 at an annual cost of around $4 billion.