This rulemaking serves to amend WIC program regulations by incorporating provisions of the Access to Baby Formula Act of 2022 and making related amendments.
This report, the latest in a series of annual reports on WIC eligibility, presents 2021 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.
Through the American Rescue Plan Act, USDA received waiver authority to support WIC and FMNP outreach, innovation, and modernization. Waivers are currently available to support WIC online shopping and ARPA-funded projects.
All WIC state agencies (SAs), including Indian Tribal Organizations and U.S. territories, help to safeguard the health of WIC infants through oversight of WIC vendors in their purchase of infant formula. This includes ensuring WIC authorized vendors purchase infant formula only from the SA’s list of licensed wholesalers, distributors, retailers, and FDA-registered infant formula manufacturers. This oversight limits the risk of stolen or adulterated infant formula being sold to WIC participants.
FNS is communicating the following guidance to remind WIC state agencies and WIC authorized vendors of our ongoing commitment to ensure the safety of infant formula purchased in the WIC program, and to prevent stolen infant formula from being purchased with WIC benefits.
USDA intends to use all available program flexibilities and contingencies to serve our program participants across our 15 nutrition programs. We have already begun to issue waivers to ease program operations and protect the health of participants.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted school meal operations and has contributed to lasting supply chain issues affecting the cost and availability of food and labor. The School Food Authority Survey II on Supply Chain Disruption and Student Participation was administered to all SFAs operating child nutrition programs in schools to gather information on the impacts of continued supply chain disruptions and the return to standard operations during SY 2022–23.
This memorandum provides the total funding amount available to FNS to distribute to state agencies, which is $252.6 million for FY 2024. This includes $219.6 million in new funds available under Section 19 of the National School Lunch Act, which is the prior year base amount adjusted for inflation, and an additional $33 million in unexpired carryover funds from previous years.
Research has shown that the WIC program has been playing an important role in improving birth outcomes and containing health care costs.
As part of the WIC innovation and modernization efforts to be funded under ARPA, FNS is supporting planning and implementation projects focused on enhancements that improve the WIC participant experience, as evidenced by enhancing the WIC shopping experience, increasing participant enrollment, reducing unnecessary administrative burden for both participants and administrators, including through data matching to streamline enrollment, and retaining eligible participants while improving equity