Population Served
WIC serves eligible:
- Pregnant women (throughout pregnancy)
- Breastfeeding women (up to infant’s 1st birthday)
- Non-breastfeeding, postpartum women (up to 6 months after pregnancy ends)
- Infants
- Children (through their 5th birthday)
Benefits
The following benefits are provided to WIC participants:
- Free healthy foods
- Nutrition education
- Breastfeeding support
- Referrals to other health and community resources
Program Delivery
WIC is not an entitlement program as Congress does not set aside funds to allow every eligible individual to participate in the program. WIC is a federal grant program for which Congress authorizes a specific amount of funds each year for the program. WIC is:
- administered at the federal level by FNS
- administered by 88 WIC agencies, through approximately 47,000 authorized retailers.
- WIC operates through 1,900 local agencies in 10,000 clinic sites, in 50 state health departments, 32 Indian Tribal Organizations, the District of Columbia, and five territories (The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands).