FNS Promotes Actions To Encourage WIC Enrollment
Imagine a school hosting a graduation ceremony at a large arena and only half of the graduates attend to receive their diplomas, missing out on a program specifically established just for them. That’s relatively akin to what is happening within the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) Health and Human Service’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). A recent FNS blog post reported that only half of those who are eligible are participating in the WIC program, meaning that millions of needy families are not benefiting from the program’s services.
The blog post deemed WIC as “one of the most powerful, evidence-based public health programs, setting moms, babies and young kids up to be healthy and thrive.” It noted that the program has helped to improve diet quality, birth weights and cognitive development, and has reduced infant deaths, premature births and health care costs. Still, only about 6 million women, infants and children nationwide participate in the program, while studies have shown that the average monthly WIC-eligible population totaled 12.51 million in calendar year 2020.
FNS stated in the blog post that it is taking steps to encourage more eligible families to enter the WIC program by making it easier to enroll, particularly by allowing participants to enroll in the program virtually as well as in person.
The FNS blog post also linked to a recent WIC policy memorandum in which the agency is encouraging states to easily connect eligible moms and kids who already participate in other federal assistance programs (e.g., Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid) with WIC benefits. The policy memorandum provides guidance to regional directors and state agencies on data sharing activities that support targeted outreach and streamlined certification processes aimed at increasing WIC participation and retention. “FNS is committed to developing tools and resources, facilitating information sharing, and providing technical assistance and funding opportunities to assist in establishing, maintaining and improving data sharing activities,” the memorandum states. “Likewise, FNS encourages WIC state agencies to allocate resources to data sharing efforts that allow WIC-eligible individuals to access program benefits and services in a straightforward and timely manner.”
Lastly, FNS is implementing a cooperative agreement that will provide subgrants to institutes of higher education and nonprofits to support to WIC state agencies to expand the use of data sharing to identify, refer and enroll eligible participants.
Programs like WIC are created to serve a special need in the community, so it’s important that WIC agencies take all actions available to encourage enrollment for those who can truly benefit.
Join us for our following Thompson Grants events:
Thompson Grants Workshop: Subrecipient Monitoring | May 23, 2023 | Virtual Event
Federal Grants Forum | June 28-30, 2023 | Portland, Maine
