Data & Research
USDA is investing in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and the WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) to reach more eligible families, keep families in WIC while they remain eligible, encourage families to redeem more of their food benefits, and advance equity. The dashboard tracks the progress of this work.
This dashboard was created to share information about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program retailer participation during fiscal year 2023.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 authorized Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children (Summer EBT) as a permanent federal food assistance entitlement program beginning in summer 2024. Summer EBT has been tested through evaluations of demonstration projects since 2011. With pending implementation of this new program, this is an appropriate time to reflect on what USDA, FNS research has learned through more than a decade of study.
The goal of the dashboard is to provide national and state level visualization of meals served, participation, and funding data for the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program, and Summer Food Service Program. The dashboard can be used by federal, state, and local organizations to assess trends in child nutrition program activity.
Since 1992, FNS has produced biennial reports on WIC participant and program characteristics based on the WIC Minimum Data Set compiled from state management information systems. The 20 items included in the MDS are collected as part of ongoing WIC operations and consist primarily of in formation related to participant eligibility.
This is a report of the National Academies' Institute of Medicine (Food and Nutrition Board), published here by permission.
This study examines the trends in the prevalence of overweight among WIC children during the 1990s. The study is based on data collected by the biennial WIC Participant and Program Characteristics Studies (1992, 1994, 1996 and 1998).
The purpose of the study was to learn the extent to which retail grocers, defined as "vendors" in the WIC Program, authorized to provide food to WIC participants, were violating program rules and procedures, and to determine which programmatic and/or demographic variables could be associated with vendor violations.
In 1994, FNS initiated the WIC Nutrition Education Demonstration Study. The demonstration had two components: a comparison of the effects of innovative and traditional WIC nutrition education for prenatal participants; and a study of the feasibility and effectiveness of providing nutrition education to preschool (three-and-four-year-old) WIC participants. The report summarized here describes the design and implementation of the child nutrition education demonstration and presents findings describing the effectiveness of the demonstration.
The study evaluated the effectiveness of three innovative approaches to nutrition education in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. Two of these education innovations were designed for educating prenatal women; the third focused on nutrition education for 3- and 4-year-old WIC participants. This executive summary and report describe the evaluation and results of the educational interventions for prenatal women.