- Author: Danielle L. Lee
- Editor: Lorrene Ritchie
The National WIC Association, alongside researchers from the University of California Nutrition Policy Institute and Pepperdine University, released a new report that reveals high levels of satisfaction among participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) with adjustments made to program services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report includes results from a multistate survey conducted in spring 2021 of over 26,000 WIC participants across 12 State WIC Agencies including Colorado, Connecticut, Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia. This report complements and informs ongoing efforts to modernize WIC services to meet the needs of over 6.2 million WIC participants. Report authors include Lorrene Ritchie, Danielle Lee, and Lanxin Song from the UC Nutrition Policy Institute, independent consultant Linnea Sallack, Christina Chauvenet and Georgia Machell from the National WIC Association, Loan Kim from Pepperdine University, and Shannon E. Whaley from Public Health Foundation Enterprise-WIC. The report was funded by the National WIC Association, UC ANR, and The David and Lucille Packard Foundation.
The USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) is an evidence-based program that helps low-income individuals live healthier lives through education, social marketing, and policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes. Known as CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) in California, SNAP-Ed is overseen by the California Department of Social Services and implemented by four state implementing agencies and the local implementing agencies (LIAs) that they fund. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is one of four state implementing agencies and funds 60 local health departments. Beginning in 2018, California's LIAs use the Program Evaluation and Reporting System (PEARS) to report their CFHL activities and interventions. The Nutrition Policy Institute serves as CDPH's evaluation contractor for its CFHL program; NPI's PEARS team, Carolyn Rider, Janice Kao, Evan Talmage, and Christina Becker, provide technical and evaluation assistance to CDPH and its LIAs for PEARS reporting. They authored a new report which presents the background, definitions, and methods used by CDPH and its funded local health departments for reporting CFHL interventions implemented throughout California during Federal Fiscal Year 2020. The report, titled “Background on Local Health Department Reporting of CalFresh Healthy Living Programs in the Program Evaluation and Reporting System, FFY 2020”, also details challenges in reporting CFHL activities and gives recommendations to improve reporting.
Rich with quotes from California WIC participants and local agency directors, two new reports and a policy brief highlight the strong consensus that the waivers USDA put in place and the other modifications the state implemented to make WIC responsive to COVID should be incorporated as permanent options in the program. In light of Congress's imminent program reauthorization, these recommendations informed by research conducted by Public Health Foundation Enterprises (PHFE)-WIC and the Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI), part of the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR), take on special significance. Researchers collected information on the experiences with WIC during COVID from interviews with 182 WIC participants, 22 interviews with local WIC agency directors and refinement of interpretation from a meeting with 12 WIC agency directors, and finally, recommendations from multiple perspectives shared at a convening of over 20 local, state, and national WIC participants, experts and leaders. The research team included Lorrene Ritchie, Christina Hecht, Nicole Vital, Ron Strochlic, Marisa Tsai, Claudia Olague, Anna Rios, and Ken Hecht from NPI, Lauren Au from UC Davis Department of Nutrition, and Christopher Anderson, Catherine Martinez, Martha Meza and Shannon Whaley from PHFE-WIC. The project was funded by a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation with additional funding from the California Department of Public Health WIC Branch.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture's Healthy Stores Refrigeration Grant Program provides grants to corner stores in disadvantaged neighborhoods to purchase energy-efficient refrigeration units for stocking California-grown fresh produce, nuts and minimally processed foods. Nutrition Policy Institute's (NPI) Marisa Tsai, Caroline Long, and Wendi Gosliner are evaluating this initiative. A new report shares findings from interviews with participating storeowners, describing their practices and opinions regarding stocking, pricing, wasting, and generally managing produce sales as well as their experiences with the grant program. This is the second in a series of reports on the Healthy Stores Refrigeration Grant Program evaluation.
- Author: Danielle L. Lee
The scale and pace of disasters impacting communities across California is increasing, in part due to human-caused climate change. The University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) received funding from USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture for a project called ‘Disasters Happen' to catalog disaster resources available across UC ANR programs and initiatives. One outcome of this project is a new guide for the UC ANR community called Disasters Happen, We Can and Will Be Prepared: Disaster Preparation and Response Guide for the UC ANR Community. The guide was made available online in January 2021 on the UC ANR Disasters Happen project website. The guide provides information on the increasing need for disaster preparedness, the importance of preparing for disasters ahead of time, UC ANR's involvement in disaster readiness, response and recovery, relevant organizations, disaster resources within UC ANR, disaster preparedness requirements for UC ANR, and more. The guide also features a case-study of how the Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) rapidly adjusted existing projects and joined forces with partners to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic to support food security for low-income families and children.