The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has well-documented benefits for low-income mothers and children. Yet, coverage of eligible individuals is incomplete, participants do not fully utilize benefits, and dietary disparities persist. It is unknown whether COVID-related changes to WIC, particularly the increase in the value of the fruit and vegetable cash-value voucher and the introduction of online visits, may point to policy solutions for the under-utilization of WIC. This study aims to estimate the impact of COVID-related changes to WIC on benefit use and participant retention, estimate the impact of increased cash value voucher/benefit on WIC participants’ intake of fruit and vegetables and overall diet quality, and to test whether the impacts of these policy changes were distributed equitably by race/ethnicity.
Start Date: June 2023
ID #: 283-5114
Principal Investigator: Erica Kenney, ScD, MPH
Co-Principal Investigator: Eric Rimm, ScD
Organization: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Funding Round: ARPA2
Keywords: COVID-19, Diet quality/dietary assessment, Equity and disparities, Food insecurity, Law/policy, Nutrition standards, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
Resource Type: Grant Summary
State: Massachusetts
Focus Area: Nutrition Policy & Programs
Age Groups: Pregnant women, infants and toddlers (ages 0 to 2), Preschool-age children (ages 3 to 5)
Related Research
June 2025
Changes in SNAP Participation and Food Expenditures for Households with Children During the Pandemic
The purposes of this research were to explore the characteristics of households with children that joined SNAP after substantial changes were made to the program in the early stages of the pandemic and to learn how the changes affected food purchases. The research team used household-based scanner data to assess demographic characteristics and food purchase MoreFebruary 2025
Consumption of the Food Groups with the Revised Benefits in the New WIC Food Package: A Scoping Review
On 18 April 2024, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published the first food package changes to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in over a decade, which reduced some food benefits (juice, milk, canned fish, and infant fruits and vegetables) and offered substitutes (cash-value vouchers (CVVs) or cash-value MoreJanuary 2025