In July of 2022, the Access to Baby Formula Act of 2022 was signed into law. This rule implements the provisions of ABFA and several other related changes to strengthen WIC’s ability to address certain disasters, emergencies, and supply chain disruptions, particularly those impacting infant formula.
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.
Many families rely on infant formula to feed their babies. Infant formula can provide important nutrients for your baby’s growth and development. Some FNS programs – including CACFP, SNAP, and WIC – provide access to formula to support healthy infant development. USDA is committed to ensuring that FNS program participants always have access to the formula they need.
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 physical presence waiver, issued under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020, allowed WIC state and local agencies to remotely certify participants into WIC during the COVID-19 pandemic. This report summarizes data collected from surveys of WIC state and local agencies about the use of the physical presence waiver and the impact it had on WIC services.
This is a report of the National Academies' Institute of Medicine (Food and Nutrition Board), published here by permission.
The purpose of the study was to learn the extent to which retail grocers, defined as "vendors" in the WIC Program, authorized to provide food to WIC participants, were violating program rules and procedures, and to determine which programmatic and/or demographic variables could be associated with vendor violations.
This report (1) identifies the number and nature of recent studies that have examined the effectiveness of three WIC services—nutrition education, breastfeeding promotion and support, and referral services—and (2) summarizes what the research shows about the effectiveness of these specific nutrition services.
In 1994, FNS initiated the WIC Nutrition Education Demonstration Study. The demonstration had two components: a comparison of the effects of innovative and traditional WIC nutrition education for prenatal participants; and a study of the feasibility and effectiveness of providing nutrition education to preschool (three-and-four-year-old) WIC participants. The report summarized here describes the design and implementation of the child nutrition education demonstration and presents findings describing the effectiveness of the demonstration.
The study evaluated the effectiveness of three innovative approaches to nutrition education in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. Two of these education innovations were designed for educating prenatal women; the third focused on nutrition education for 3- and 4-year-old WIC participants. This executive summary and report describe the evaluation and results of the educational interventions for prenatal women.