Four years after it launched a test of online grocery shopping for SNAP recipients — which rapidly expanded during the pandemic — the Agriculture Department proposed the same shopping flexibility for households enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children program (WIC). “We agree with WIC participants and stakeholders — online grocery shopping and ordering is essential for busy Americans,” said Agriculture deputy undersecretary Stacy Dean, who oversees WIC and other public nutrition programs.
Online shopping has become an increasingly common way to buy groceries and should be available to WIC participants to assure equal access to food, said the USDA. As an example, it said online shopping would improve access to infant formula after nationwide shortages last year.
The USDA said online shopping would be one of its steps to modernize WIC, along with other measures like encouraging states to develop new methods of administration, such as mobile payments and remote issuance of benefits. “The proposed revisions are intended to reflect the program’s near-complete transition to electronic benefit transfer (EBT), support current technology and future innovations and expand opportunities for the retail grocery industry to innovate in ways that benefit WIC participants,” said a USDA summary of its proposed regulation.
Some 6.35 million pregnant people, new parents and children up to age 5 were enrolled at latest count in the Women, Infants and Children program, which provides supplemental food package and health referrals to participants. The program cost $5.76 billion in fiscal 2022. About 1.2 million infants receive formula benefits through WIC; half of infant formula sold in the United States is purchased through WIC.
SNAP recipients can already shop online for groceries in 49 states and DC. “We expect that Alaska will implement online purchasing soon,” said Dean in Senate testimony last week. “In addition to affording those paying with EBT cards the same options as other consumers, many living in food deserts and families working multiple jobs with little time to spare now have access to more
retail options through SNAP online shopping, and the positive impacts have been particularly strong in rural areas.”
The SNAP online shopping option began as a pilot project, mandated by Congress, in April 2019 in New York state with Alabama, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington state to join soon afterward. When the pandemic hit, the USDA quickly approved more states for online sales; by September 2020, online shopping was approved in 46 states and DC.
At present, online shopping is available to 99 percent of SNAP household. Nearly 4 million households shopped online in November 2022, “which is more than a 100-fold increase from March 2020, when about 35,000 SNAP households shopped online,” said Dean. SNAP serves 42.1 million households.
Shortages of infant formula could recur. The Food Fix newsletter said last week, “Infant formula remains a highly consolidated industry that’s vulnerable to supply disruptions.” Abbott Nutrition and Mead Johnson account for three-fourths of sales nationwide.
The USDA proposal was scheduled to appear in the Federal Register on Thursday. A pre-publication copy was available here. The public comment period will run from Thursday through May 24.