WIC Information for CACFP State Agencies

Section 107(i) of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act of 1998 (PL 105-336) requires the Department of Agriculture to provide state agencies that administer the CACFP with information concerning the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Further, it requires these state agencies to ensure that each CACFP child care center (except for outside-school-hours care centers) and each family and group day care home receives materials that include:

1. a basic explanation of the benefits and importance of the WIC program, including information on how benefits may be obtained; and
2. the maximum state income eligibility standards for the WIC program according to family size. Each year, state agencies must ensure that CACFP centers and homes receive updates of the information described above.

Finally, they must ensure that the information provided to CACFP centers and homes is, in turn, provided to the parents of children served by them at the time of enrollment.

Attached is the packet of WIC information that was sent to each CACFP state agency. The packet includes the following information:

1. A fact sheet developed by the Supplemental Food Programs Division that provides information concerning the importance and benefits of the WIC program. We are providing CACFP state agencies with enough copies of this fact sheet for each child care home and center (except for outside-school-hours care centers) in each state to satisfy the requirement that they furnish WIC program information to participating centers and homes.
2. A copy of a chart. “Income Eligibility Guidelines’’ containing information excerpted from the “Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (W1C) Poverty Income Guidelines,” which is published annually in the Federal Register. It provides family size and income information at the 185 percent level of the Federal Poverty income Guidelines. We are also sending state agencies enough copies of this chart for each child care home and center (except for outside-school-hours care centers) in each state to satisfy the requirement that they furnish maximum state income eligibility standards for the WIC program.
3. A listing of all state agencies that administer the WIC program as well as a listing of the local WIC agencies in each region. State CACFP agencies are required to provide this information to child care centers and homes.

As noted above, state agencies must provide CACFP centers and homes with updated information on maximum income limits for WIC on an annual basis. We recommend that state agencies schedule their distribution of the material to coincide with the annual issuance in July of the WIC program Income Guidelines. This will help ensure that centers and homes and parents have the most current information available. We further recommend that CACFP state agencies use the annual distribution of this information to remind centers and homes of their obligation to make it available to parents, along with information related to WIC benefits and local WIC agencies. The monitoring by state agencies of the distribution of this information should be carried out in a manner determined by the state to be the most useful and effective.

If you have any questions about this information, please feel free to contact your FNS regional office.

STANLEY C. GARNETT
Director
Child Nutrition Division