The number of children participating in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) increased by 8.7 percent during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Food Research & Action Center.
This was the first increase in child participation seen in more than a decade, the report said. Overall, the WIC program served an average of 6.2 million parents each month in the first two years of the pandemic, a modest 1.2-percent increase from February 2020, but a reversal of a decade-long decline in participation.
These increases were due in part to changes made to the WIC program during the pandemic, FRAC said, including giving people the ability to make remote WIC appointments instead of having to go in-person to a program office, and a temporary increase in WIC benefits for fruits and vegetables. During the pandemic, the program’s fruit and vegetable benefit rose from $9/month for children and $11/month for pregnant and postpartum people to $24/month for children, $43/month for pregnant and postpartum people and $47/month for nursing parents.
The increased benefits for produce have been extended four times by Congress and are due to expire at the end of the year.
During the first two years of the pandemic, redemption of WIC benefits pushed $7 billion into local economies, the report said.
Despite the overall increase in WIC participation, enrollment decreased or remained flat in 29 states, compared to February 2020, and enrollment in the program did not increase as fast as SNAP enrollment did during the pandemic. To reach more eligible people, FRAC urged Congress to take several actions, including making the option for remote appointments permanent, making the increased fruit and vegetable benefits permanent and funding technology and infrastructure to improve WIC’s remote services.