The WIC Food Cost-Containment Practices Study describes the voluntarily approaches state agencies used in 2018 to reduce food costs when selecting and authorizing WIC foods. This study is the second of its kind; the first was conducted by the USDA Economic Research Service in 2003. This report examines how six types of food cost-containment practices are associated with food costs and WIC participant satisfaction, benefit redemption, and food consumption in 12 state agencies. 

Since 1988, FNS has produced biennial reports on WIC participant and program characteristics for use in program monitoring and managing WIC information needs. The PC 2020 report summarizes demographic, income and health-related characteristics and behaviors of participants certified to receive WIC benefits in April 2020.

This report, the latest in a series of annual reports on WIC eligibility, presents 2019 national and state estimates of the number of people eligible for WIC benefits and the percents of the eligible population and the US population covered by the program, including estimates by participant category. The report also provides estimates by region, state, U.S. territory and race and ethnicity.