- Author: Danielle L. Lee
- Editor: Lorrene Ritchie
Researchers at Public Health Foundation Enterprise-WIC in partnership with the University of California Nutrition Policy Institute released a policy brief showing results of an increase in over $50 million across California on fruits and vegetables purchased by California families enrolled in WIC from June-September 2021. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is a USDA-funded program that provides healthy foods to low-income pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children up to age 5. The vegetables and fruits in the WIC food package are issued as a “Cash Value Benefit” (CVB), enabling families to buy a variety of vegetables or fruits up to the CVB amount. CVB amounts for all women and children on WIC were raised to $35 per month from the usual $9 or $11 from June-September 2021 with funding from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. Congressional appropriations have enabled monthly CVB amounts to continue at $24 for all children and $43 or $47 for women, depending on their pregnant or lactating status, through March 31, 2022. NPI and PHFE-WIC researchers showed that nearly all of 1,673 Southern California WIC participants in surveyed reported the $9 value to be insufficient, whereas over three-quarters reported the $35 value to be just right. This project was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Healthy Eating Research Program.
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.
More than half of infants in the US participate in the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. WIC provides supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education to low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are at nutritional risk. In a recent study, researchers examined the association between the duration of WIC participation and the diet quality of 24-month-old children. They found that children who received WIC benefits during most of the first two years of life had better diet quality at age 24 months than children who, despite remaining eligible for benefits, discontinued WIC during infancy. These findings suggest nutritional benefits for eligible children who stay in the program longer and highlight the importance of helping them to do so. The study results have been compiled into a policy brief by the University of California (UC), Davis Center for Poverty & Inequality Research, and are available online. The research was conducted by Nancy Weinfield of the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Research Institute, Christine Borger of Westat, Lauren Au of UC Davis Department of Nutrition, Shannon Whaley of Public Health Foundation Enterprises WIC, Danielle Berman of the US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, and Lorrene Ritchie of the Nutrition Policy Institute within the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Throughout the pandemic, the Nutrition Policy Institute policy team, Christina Hecht and Ken Hecht, have partnered with a Stanford University research team and two San Joaquin Valley community-based organizations to help improve access to school meals. The team's study included parent focus groups to capture parents' concerns and wishes regarding their children's school meals, and a parent PhotoVoice project to visually document school meals. Nearly all parent engagements were conducted in Spanish and study findings were reported to the community via a bilingual webinar and Radio Bilingüe. Recently introduced state (California SB 364) and federal (The Universal School Meals Program Act of 2021) legislation aim to provide free school meals for all enrolled children. Both bills include added funds for locally-sourced foods and the establishment of a “Summer EBT” program to provide low-income families with extra funds for food when schools – and school meal programs – are closed. Learn about the legislation and read parent viewpoints in Parent Voices: School Meals for All, Parent Voices: Local Foods for School Meals, and Parent Voices: Summer EBT. This work was supported with funding from the American Heart Association Voices for Healthy Kids, The Center at Sierra Health Foundation and the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund, Stanford Medical Scholars Program, Stanford Pediatric Resident Research Grant, and Share Our Strength No Kid Hungry. This work also received a United States Public Health Service 2021 Excellence in Public Health Award.
Congress is working on Child Nutrition Reauthorization, which has been delayed since 2015. The previous reauthorization resulted in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA). Despite the delay, a recent study shows that school meals are the single overall healthiest source of eating in the U.S., suggesting children's nutrition has fared well under HHFKA. Limitation of added sugars in school meals was not incorporated into the HHFKA, due in large part to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) anticipating that maximum calorie levels in school meals would effectively curb amounts of added sugars. However, this was not effective as a recent study showed that most schools exceeded the guideline of 10% of total calories daily limit for added sugars at both breakfast (92%) and lunch (69%). In their latest policy brief, Nutrition Policy Institute researchers in collaboration with Stanford Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Cultiva La Salud, and the Dolores Huerta Foundation, share findings from a research project involving San Joaquin Valley parents of children who receive school meals during COVID-19 related school closures. Parent experiences of school meals were collected from focus groups and PhotoVoice documentation of one week's worth of school meals. Parents expressed concern about the freshness, nutritional quality, and amount of added sugars in the school meals. The brief, entitled ‘School Meals: Kids are Sweeter with Less Sugar' presents parent photographs together with parent quotes and a brief summary of the background. It concludes with the policy recommendation that Congress, through Child Nutrition Reauthorization, direct USDA to implement a standard for added sugars that aligns with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The brief is available online.