Secretary of Agriculture, do hereby proclaim August 1–7, 2023, as National WIC Breastfeeding Week.
The physical presence waiver, issued under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020, allowed WIC state and local agencies to remotely certify participants into WIC during the COVID-19 pandemic. This report summarizes data collected from surveys of WIC state and local agencies about the use of the physical presence waiver and the impact it had on WIC services.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (the Act), PL 111-296, established a new reporting requirement for the WIC Program. USDA is now mandated to compile and publish annually, breastfeeding performance measurements based on program participant data on the number of partially and fully breastfed infants for each WIC state and local agency.
Enrollment for the WIC Program in April 2018 totaled 7,837,672. Of this total, Whites accounted for 58.81%, Blacks/African Americans 21.54%, American Indian/Alaskan Natives 8.88%, Multiple Race 6.08%, Asians 3.78%, Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders 0.81%.
Enrollment for the WIC Program in April 2016 totaled 8,815,472. Of this total, Whites accounted for 5,168,190 (58.63%), Blacks/African Americans 1,829,374 (20.75%), American Indian/Alaskan Natives 906,698 (10.29%), Multiple Race 508,750 (5.77%), Asians 317,604 (3.60%), Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders 69,882 (0.79%).
Enrollment for the WIC Program in April 2014 totaled 9,303,254. Of this total, Whites accounted for 5,465,188 (58.74%), Blacks or African Americans 1,892,153 (20.34%), American Indian/Alaskan Natives 1,032,651 (11.10%), Multiple Race 506,270 (5.44%), Asians 309,260 (3.32%), Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders 78,229 (0.84%).
Phase II was a methodological study, conducted in six sites during 2015–2016, to test an approach to determine its feasibility for a national evaluation.