WIC Participant and Program Characteristics 2014 summarizes the demographic characteristics of participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children nationwide in April 2014. It includes information on participant income and nutrition risk characteristics, estimates breastfeeding initiation rates for WIC infants, and describes WIC members of migrant farm-worker families. PC 2014 is the most recent in a series of reports generated from WIC state management information system data biennially since 1992.

In 2007, USDA introduced a new set of food packages via an Interim Rule based on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, which were implemented by October 2009. The contents of the food packages were finalized via a Final Rule in 2014. The Final Rule clarified some provisions in the Interim Rule and allowed some additional options and substitutions.

This policy memorandum transmits changes from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights regarding the appropriate nondiscrimination statement to use on Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) materials.

The main objectives of this report are to describe how Loving Support© Peer Counseling is currently implemented in WIC state agencies and local agencies; and to draw comparisons with the program’s implementation in 2008, when the last study was conducted. 

The purpose of this policy memorandum is to clarify the WIC regulatory requirement that WIC state agencies must coordinate with the state Medicaid program for the provision of exempt infant formulas and medical foods.

This policy memorandum is being issued in response to the fiscal year 2013 audit by USDA’s Office of Inspector General, state agencies’ Food Costs for the FNS WIC Program.

Recommendations of the Paperwork Reduction Work Group to Congress, USDA, and states.