By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
The WIC (Women, Infants, Children) Program served about 6.6 million participants in 2023, including more than half of all infants born in the United States. This program was developed to protect the health of low-income pregnant and post-partum people, infants, and children up to age 5. It provides participants with vouchers that are used to purchase specific foods that are identified as being nutritious. WIC is administered by the USDA, which recently issued a press release that announced the final rule on revisions to WIC food packages. According to USDA’s website, “The changes will provide WIC participants with a wider variety of nutritious foods to support healthy dietary patterns and accommodate special dietary needs and personal and cultural food preferences. The revisions provide foods in amounts that are more consistent with the supplemental nature of the program, encourages fruit and vegetable consumption, and strengthens support for breastfeeding.”
The goals of the update include providing “additional flexibility, variety, and choice for individuals with special dietary needs due to medical conditions, limited cooking and/or storage facilities, and cultural and personal preference (including, but not limited to, vegan and vegetarian diets) while ensuring the delivery of priority nutrients to WIC participants.” Many of the changes will make it easier to follow a vegan diet while participating in the WIC program. The Vegetarian Resource Group has been promoting changes like these for many years in comments we submitted to the USDA related to WIC.
The changes will be phased in over the 24 months from the publication of the final rule, with a few exceptions.
Changes include:
- Allowing plant-based yogurt and plant-based cheese that meets requirements set by USDA for protein and calcium to be used in place of the entire allowance of dairy milk. These products would have to provide a specified amount of calcium and protein and, for yogurt, vitamin D. An added sugar limit has been established for yogurt (plant-based and dairy) and for plant-based milk alternatives. Previously, USDA had allowed “soy-based beverages”; now “plant-based milk alternatives” are allowed. Medical documentation is not needed to substitute plant-based products for dairy milk. I’ll talk more specifically about these important changes in a future blog post.
- Reducing the maximum monthly amount of dairy milk allowed.
- Requiring that tofu, which can be used to replace dairy milk, supply at least 100 milligrams of calcium per 100 grams of tofu.
- Requiring states to allow peanut butter and legumes to substitute for eggs. Allowing states the option of substituting tofu for eggs. Previously, WIC regulations did not allow substitutions for eggs.
- Requiring canned beans to be offered in addition to dried.
- Allowing WIC State agencies the option to authorize nut and seed butters as a substitute for peanut butter.
- Reducing the amount of infant meat (baby food meat) offered for breast-fed babies.
- Expanding whole grain options to include quinoa, wild rice, millet, triticale, amaranth, kamut, sorghum, wheat berries, tortillas made with folic acid-fortified corn masa flour, cornmeal, teff, and buckwheat. Whole wheat pita, English muffins, bagels, and naan were also added as whole grain options. In addition, WIC State agencies are allowed to authorize other whole grain options that meet WIC standards.
- Permanently increasing the fruit and vegetable benefit so that the dollar amount of vouchers to purchase fruits and vegetables increases up to 4-fold.
- Requiring that WIC State agencies allow fresh and at least one other form (canned, frozen, dried) of fruits and vegetables.
- Allowing fresh-cut herbs to be purchased with vegetable vouchers.
These changes will potentially make the WIC program more relevant to vegans as well as promoting more plant-based options for all participants.
To read more about the WIC program see:
The Vegetarian Resource Group Sent in Testimony on the Proposed Revision in the WIC Food Package (2023)
USDA Proposes Updates to the WIC Program (2022)
WIC Programs Offer Foods For Vegans (2020)
WIC Farmers Market Program (2020)