Pandemic-era tweaks to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children helped boost participation in the program after years of declining enrollment, according to a report released yesterday by the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC).
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, the USDA authorized a series of waivers and flexibilities for the program, commonly known as WIC, to facilitate access amid public health precautions. Notably, participants were able to register for benefits and receive support over the phone or online. Previously they had been required to visit clinics in person.
FRAC’s findings, based on an analysis of food costs and WIC participation rates from February 2020 through February 2021 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, show a 2.1 percent increase in participation during that period — a significant jump for a program that has seen enrollment decline steadily in the past decade. According to the most recent available data, from 2017, just half of eligible families enrolled in the program.
WIC, which supports pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and young children, goes beyond most federal assistance programs in that it provides counseling, prenatal nutrition information, and breastfeeding advice, among other support services. It is also the only food-assistance program that directs participants to a fixed set of healthy foods. Its services have been shown to reduce maternal and infant mortality as well as childhood obesity, and to improve cognitive development. On the heels of a pandemic that worsened America’s obesity crisis, left many kids struggling academically, and had a negative impact on maternal health, advocates stress the need for robust measures to increase participation in the program.
“Things would be far worse for mothers and their children if not for programs like WIC,” Luis Guardia, president of FRAC, said in a statement. “We must build off the lessons learned during the pandemic in order to create a better experience for women and their children who will be experiencing ongoing hardship from the pandemic for years to come.”
An average of 6.3 million WIC participants each month saw increased access to healthy foods and greater economic stability, according to the report. North Carolina, California, Kentucky, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia had the largest increases in participation, ranging from 16.5 percent to 20 percent.
At the same time, nearly half of states saw participation decline, according to FRAC’s findings. Most of this decline was in states that still rely on offline benefits transfer systems, making them unable to take advantage of the waivers; participants still had to visit in-person clinics to register for benefits. Arkansas, Missouri, Utah, Ohio, and Illinois saw participation suffer the most, according to the report, with drops ranging from 9.4 percent to 21.4 percent.
The Biden administration has focused on the WIC program in its early relief efforts. Notably, the American Rescue Plan allocated $880 million for modernizing the program — improving delivery models, expanding outreach, and temporarily increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables available to participants.
But advocates say structural barriers will persist without fundamental changes, such as more streamlined outreach — making sure, for example, that participants in other federal assistance programs, such as SNAP, are automatically registered for WIC, if eligible — and an overhaul of outdated benefits transfer systems.
Even if pandemic-era waivers do become permanent — an issue currently being debated in Congress as part of Child Nutrition Reauthorization — states with antiquated systems will still struggle to ensure that in-need families have access to benefits.