While four out of every five eligible Americans are enrolled in SNAP, participation in the Women, Infants, and Children program is much lower — 50 percent, according to USDA data. On Thursday, the government announced $16 million in funding for 36 projects to test ways to encourage participation in WIC, which provides supplemental food and health care referrals to low-income pregnant women, new mothers, and children up to age 5.
WIC serves about 6 million women and children annually, with a cost estimated at $6 billion this fiscal year.
“While our efforts to increase participation among eligible groups appear to be taking hold, we have more work to do,” said Stacy Dean, the USDA’s deputy undersecretary for nutrition.
The 36 projects will try such approaches as co-locating WIC staffers at medical offices and partnering with Head Start in the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, developing linguistically appropriate materials for communities with large numbers of Middle Eastern and North African residents in Michigan, and addressing cultural and language barriers to Black and Latino families.
Funding for the projects flows through a cooperative agreement between the USDA and the Food Research and Action Center.
For information about WIC, click here.