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.
Each year FNS announces the WIC Breastfeeding Award of Excellence program awardees.
The 2026 application period opens on Dec. 1, 2025 and closes on Feb. 2, 2026.
Research has shown that the WIC program has been playing an important role in improving birth outcomes and containing health care costs.
WIC is not designed to be a disaster assistance program, and is, therefore, not considered a first response option for disaster survivors. WIC policies allow state agencies flexibility in program design and administration to support continuation of benefits to participants during times of natural or other disasters. WIC state agencies are encouraged to work with state and local emergency services offices, as well as FEMA, to assist participants during a disaster.
The Child Nutrition Act, established a new reporting requirement for the WIC program. USDA is now mandated to compile and publish annually, breastfeeding performance measurements based on program participant data on the number of partially and fully breastfed infants for each WIC state and local agency.
The WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study 2 (WIC ITFPS-2)/ “Feeding My Baby” Study captures data on caregivers and their children over the first 6 years of the child’s life after WIC enrollment to address a series of research questions regarding feeding practices, associations between WIC services and those practices, and the health and nutrition outcomes of children receiving WIC. To date, the study has produced three reports: the Intentions to Breastfeed Report (2015); the Infant Year Report (2017); and the Second Year Report (2018). The current report focuses on caregivers’ employment, school, and child care circumstances, as well as the feeding beliefs and practices, dietary intake, and weight status of children from birth through approximately 36 months of age.
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide guidance to WIC state agencies in planning, preparing for and responding to the possibility of a human pandemic.
This policy memorandum outlines the requirements for the revised WIC Advance Planning Document process and provides additional guidance to state agencies that are interested in the transfer of a SAM system.
GAO Report to Congressional Committees on Food Assistance: Performance Measures for Assessing Three WIC Services