The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) held a listening session regarding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Farm Bill provisions on March 19, 2019. 181 people registered for the call and 132 people called into the session.
The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) held a listening session regarding the provisions of The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) on March 13, 2019.
Breastfeeding promotion and support is a central tenet of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The Loving Support Peer Counseling Program is an initiative designed to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration rates for WIC participants, as well as to increase community support for WIC participants who breastfeed.
This study provides a comprehensive and systematic picture of the implementation of the Loving Support Peer Counseling Program. Phase I, the Implementation Study, describes the process of the Loving Support Peer Counseling Program implementation in those States that accepted breastfeeding peer counseling grants. Phase II, the Impact Study, will address the research question of what intensity of peer counseling is necessary to increase duration of breastfeeding once the program has met the standards of the FNS model.
WIC Participant and Program Characteristics summarizes the demographic characteristics of WIC participants nationwide in April 2008, along with information on participant income and nutrition risk characteristics, a national estimate of breastfeeding initiation for WIC infants, and a description of WIC members of migrant farmworker families.
This report presents estimated participation rates for 2002 and revised estimates of rates for 1999, 2000, and 2001.
While a great deal of breastfeeding promotion and support is happening in WIC at both the state and local levels, there has been no systematic effort to evaluate what might work best in the WIC setting. Within this context, FNS contracted for a breastfeeding intervention design study with the following goals: Identify interventions to increase the incidence, duration and intensity of breastfeeding among women participating in WIC; and design an evaluation plan to examine the implementation and effectiveness of these interventions.
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.
GAO Report to Congressional Committees on Food Assistance: Financial Information on WIC Nutrition Services and Administrative Costs
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.