Food Assistance. WIC Faces Challenges in Providing Nutrition Services

摘要

After nearly 30 years, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,Infants and Children (WIC) has become one of the nations most important nutrition assistance programs, serving almost half of all infants and about one-quarter of all children between 1 and 4 years of age in the United States. In fiscal year 2000, WIC provided about $4.1 billion to fund program operations. Of that amount, about $3 billion was for food grants and about $1.1 billion was for Nutrition Services and Administration (NSA) grants. Food grants cover the cost of supplemental foods; typically, participants are given paper vouchersusually referred to as checksto obtain approved foods at authorized grocery stores. To help the Congress better understand the costs of administering WIC and delivering nutrition services, the William F. Goodling Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act of 1998 (P. L. 105-336) directed GAO to assess various aspects of WICs NSA. This report (1) describes the challenges that state and local WIC agencies face in providing nutrition services and administering the program and (2) identifies approaches to address these challenges. We have explored the advantages, disadvantages, and possible consequences of the approaches whenever possible. This report is the final in a series of reports providing the Congress with information about the WIC program.