This report is a census of women, infants, and children who were participating in the WIC program in April, 2012. The report includes information on participant income and nutrition risk characteristics, and estimates breastfeeding initiation rates for WIC infants.
This study is part of a larger FNS effort to ensure WIC program integrity and to comply with the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 which requires FNS to estimate improper payments in its programs.
The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) is managing a small-grants research program, funded by FNS. Through a competitive process, UCLA awarded seven grants in June 2012.
This report estimates the average monthly food costs for each of 5 WIC participant subgroups and estimates total dollars spent on 17 major categories of WIC-eligible foods in FY 2010. The participant and food level costs in this report are USDA’s first estimates since implementation of the 2009 WIC food package changes.
This report offers updated estimates of the population that met these criteria and was eligible for WIC benefits in 2010. This report includes (1) estimates of the number of eligibles (including children by single year of age) and coverage rates; (2) updated estimates in U.S. territories; and (3) confidence intervals.
This study uses the most recent data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to examine the diets of children who received WIC benefits. The report compares the diets of WIC-participant children to the diets of income-eligible nonparticipant children and higher income children who were not eligible for WIC benefits.
This publication is based on the WIC Infant Feeding Practices Study (WIC-IFPS) sponsored by FNS. The WIC-IFPS is a one-year longitudinal study, which describes the infant feeding practices over the first year of life among a nationally representative sample of approximately 900 mothers who participated in WIC while they were pregnant.
FNS asked Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., (MPR) to assess the CPS estimates in relation to alternative estimates from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), which collects longitudinal monthly income data.