In appreciation of breastfeeding mothers and of all the dedicated volunteers, professionals, communities, and organizations who support their efforts, I, Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture, do hereby proclaim Aug. 1–7, 2026, as National WIC Breastfeeding Week.
The Child Nutrition Act requires USDA to annually compile and publish breastfeeding performance measurements. We use this data to monitor breastfeeding trends and to help identify exemplary performance of WIC state and local agencies in breastfeeding and make awards to such agencies.
Healthy Eating Index scores range from 0 to 100 and are a measure of diet quality used to assess how well a set of foods aligns with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A higher score is ideal. The FDPIR Food Package scores an 84. This is higher than the average U.S. diet, which scores a 59.
Each year we announce the WIC Breastfeeding Award of Excellence program awardees.
Many families rely on infant formula to feed their babies. Infant formula can provide important nutrients for your baby’s growth and development. Some FNA programs – including CACFP, SNAP, and WIC – provide access to formula to support healthy infant development. USDA is committed to ensuring that FNA program participants always have access to the formula they need.
Research has shown that the WIC program has been playing an important role in improving birth outcomes and containing health care costs.
The Breastfed Babies Welcome Here! resource contains communication tools CACFP operators can use to let mothers and families know that breastfed babies are welcome at their child care site.
WIC mothers are strongly encouraged to breastfeed their infants unless there is a medical reason not to. All WIC staff are trained to promote breastfeeding and provide the necessary support new breastfeeding mothers and infants need for success.
The findings described in this webinar are based on two analyses. One that estimated the percentage of daily and weekly lunch menus that met the updated nutrition standards, and another that examined the nutritional quality of the lunches using the Healthy Eating Index-2010.
This video is from Lesson 3 of the CACFP Trainer’s Tools: Feeding Infants kit It contains suggestions for creating a breastfeeding-friendly environment, best practices parents can follow for labeling and transporting breastmilk to a child care site, and it introduces the Breastfed Babies Welcome Here! A Mother’s Guide as a resource for breastfeeding mothers.