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Economic Impact


Arizona WIC Food Guide

An official list of approved WIC foods from the Arizona Department of Health Services.


Alabama WIC Vendor Manual

An Alabama Department of Public Health – Division of WIC publication that outlines policies and procedures for selling WIC approved foods to participants in Alabama.


Alabama WIC Food Guide

An official list of approved WIC foods from the Alabama Department of Public Health – Division of WIC.


Alaska WIC Vendor Manual

An Alaska Department of Health and Social Services WIC publication that outlines policies and procedures for selling WIC approved foods to participants in Alaska.


Healthy Food Access at Corner Stores

This webinar presented an opportunity to learn about ongoing efforts to improve food access in New Jersey through healthy corner store programming. Presenters: Karin Mille, NJ DOH Community Health and […]


WIC and the Retail Price of Infant Formula

Rebates from infant formula manufacturers to State agencies that administer the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) support over one-quarter of all WIC participants. However, concerns have been raised that WIC and its infant formula rebate program may significantly affect the infant formula prices faced by non-WIC consumers. This report presents findings from the most comprehensive national study of infant formula prices at the retail level. For a given set of wholesale prices, WIC and its infant formula rebate program resulted in modest increases in the supermarket price of infant formula, especially in States with a high percentage of WIC formula-fed infants. However, lower-priced infant formulas are available to non-WIC consumers in most areas of the country, and the number of these lower priced alternatives is increasing over time.


Informing Food and Nutrition Assistance Policy: 10 Years of Research at ERS

Since 1998, Congress has provided funds to ERS to study and evaluate the Nation's domestic food and nutrition assistance programs. ERS has become the premier source of food and nutrition assistance research in the United States, sponsoring over 600 publications on a wide range of topics related to food and nutrition assistance. This report, prepared at the 10-year anniversary of the FANRP program, highlights some of the key research conducted during the program's first decade.


Economic Linkages Between the WIC Program and the Farm Sector

In fiscal 2008, the $4.6 billion of food purchased with vouchers from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) generated $1.3 billion in farm revenue. Because WIC participants would have purchased some of these foods with their own money in the absence of the program, the net addition to farm revenue from WIC is estimated at $331 million and the net increase in full-time-equivalent farm jobs at 2,640. The study uses an Input-Output Multiplier Model to derive these estimates and assumes that recent revisions in the WIC food packages were implemented in all States in fiscal 2008.


The WIC Program: Background, Trends, and Economic Issues, 2009 Edition

The mission of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children through age 4 who are at nutritional risk. WIC provides nutritious foods to supplement diets, nutrition education, and referrals to health care and other social services. Administered by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), almost half of all infants and about a quarter of all children ages 1-4 in the United States participate in the program. WIC is USDA's third-largest food and nutrition assistance program, accounting for 10 percent of total Federal spending on food and nutrition assistance. This report describes the WIC program-how it works, its history, program trends, and the characteristics of the population it serves. It also examines current issues facing WIC, focusing mainly on those with important economic implications.