This letter provides information to WIC state agencies and WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program state agencies on available American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 waivers and a new state agency request process.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provided USDA with $390 million, available through FY 2024, to carry out outreach, innovation, and program modernization efforts to increase participation and redemption of benefits for both the WIC program and the WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program.
This is to inform you of changes that will be made to the FMNP interim regulations. Because some aspects of this year's FMNP season have already begun, and the process of issuing regulations is long and complex, we wanted to offer state agencies the opportunity to implement the following provisions prior to publication of the final FMNP regulation.
We have concluded that neither the authorization of farmers or farmers' markets nor the exchange of a FMNP coupon between a certified FMNP recipient and an approved farmer or farmers' markets in the FMNP represents "covered transactions." Therefore, farmers or farmers' markets in the FMNP are not subject to the certification requirements.