Recently, FNS has received a number of questions related to buying local meat, poultry, game, and eggs; this memorandum seeks to clarify the regulatory requirements related to food safety and answer specific questions related to these products with a series of questions and answers.
This page includes information for vendors who may be interested in bidding on open infant formula state agency rebate contracts. Information on guidance and regulations is included, as well as any contracts open for bids.
FNS hosted a webinar to provide state agencies and food banks with information about how TEFAP can support cultural and religious practices around food, particularly those serving kosher and halal observant communities. The webinar featured panelists from state agencies and food banks who have successfully implemented processes to serve these specific communities.
FNS hosted a second webinar to provide program stakeholders with additional information on supporting kosher observant communities through TEFAP.
Answers to some of the frequently asked questions about how TEFAP can support cultural and religious practices around food, particularly those serving kosher and halal observant communities.
This factsheet reviews best practices for producers to learn about how to sell local food to schools.
Increasing Transparency around WIC Infant Formula Contracts
By Stacy Dean, Deputy Under Secretary, Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services
WIC is a powerful public health program, serving nearly half of all babies born in the country. To help keep program costs manageable, Congress requires WIC state agencies to contract with an infant formula manufacturer to provide discounted formula for purchase with WIC benefits. The state agencies solicit bids from manufacturers and award a contract to the one that offers the most cost-effective bid. This process helps save taxpayers an estimated $1.7 billion per year on formula provided through WIC and allow the program to continue to make WIC benefits available to all eligible mothers, infants, and young children.
To increase transparency around this contracting process, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service recently launched a webpage – first announced by the Biden-Harris Administration earlier this year – where we will post all open state solicitations for infant formula bids. By centralizing this information in one place, the WIC formula contract solicitations webpage makes it easy for manufacturers – including those new to WIC – to find and compete for open opportunities.
Increasing transparency and encouraging competition around WIC formula contracts may seem purely bureaucratic, but it’s actually a vital step toward ensuring babies can get the formula they need. Right now, there are only three manufacturers with contracts to be the primary providers of infant formula through WIC. Increasing visibility around contract opportunities is one step USDA can take that may help bring additional manufacturers into the program. With more than half of the country’s formula going to WIC babies, diversifying the source of the formula provided through WIC would strengthen the resiliency of the nation’s formula supply and help ensure there’s always enough to go around.
This goal of increasing transparency around the contracting process benefited from bipartisan Congressional support led by Sen. Roger Marshall (Kan.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), who introduced the WIC Healthy Beginnings Act that proposed this new webpage. Their leadership and collaboration with their colleagues in the House who sponsored companion legislation – Reps. Lucy McBath (Ga.), Lisa McClain (Mich.), Andy Levin (Mich.), and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa) – helped bring this idea to fruition.
We look forward to continuing our work with WIC champions in Congress – where the program has long received bipartisan support – and other partners to make sure WIC continues to be an invaluable resource for mothers, babies, and children across the country.
In keeping with ongoing efforts to increase the number of small and underserved businesses participating in the USDA food procurement program, as well as increasing access to culturally appropriate foods, AMS is seeking public input on perceived barriers that small businesses, those owned by underserved businesses, and providers of organic, kosher and halal agricultural products face in working with AMS' Commodity Procurement Program.
This webinar provided state agencies with information about USDA Foods ordering and procurement processes.
This webinar provided TEFAP state agencies with information about TEFAP ordering and procurement, as well as available funding.