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.
This request for application will provide $1,500,000 in federal funding, through a one-time cooperative agreement, to one external entity (institute of higher education or other non-profit research organization) that will ultimately provide grants to researchers to conduct pre- and post-implementation research around changes to the WIC food packages.
Recorded webinar explaining a grant opportunity to facilitate data sharing activities that support targeted outreach and streamlined certification processes aimed at increasing the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children participation and retention.
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
The goal of this request for applications is to facilitate data sharing activities that support targeted outreach and streamlined certification processes aimed at increasing WIC participation and retention.
This policy memorandum provides guidance on data sharing activities that support targeted outreach and streamlined certification processes aimed at increasing WIC participation and retention. It expresses USDA FNS support of data sharing, provides an overview of data sharing relevant to WIC, summarizes WIC program guidance on sharing confidential WIC participant data, and lays the groundwork for future guidance and resources to help WIC state agencies expand outreach and streamline the
certification process.
USDA proposes to remove barriers to online ordering and internet-based transactions in WIC through this rulemaking.
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 Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and the WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program.
USDA proposed rule to streamline and modernize WIC and offer online shopping to participants. The proposed changes aim to ease stores’ administrative requirements, creates state positions to improve customer experience. Questions and answers regarding the proposed rule can be found on this page.