Newsroom

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. 

The Omaha Nation WIC program recognizes the importance of incorporating Indigenous foods and traditional cooking practices into the WIC experience to form a holistic approach to nutrition education. Recently, they have taken extra steps to spotlight foods indigenous to their community, as well as dishes and cooking methods traditionally used by the Umóⁿhoⁿ people.

On August 14-19, a leadership team traveled to Guam and the Commonwealth of Northern Marianna Islands to meet with the territories’ leadership, superintendents and commissioners, that administer USDA food assistance programs. They discussed the challenges of transitioning back to pre-pandemic operations, how USDA could assist, and lessons learned.

Here’s what FNS staff had to say about the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and what lies ahead.

Today kicks off the second, historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. It’s been more than 50 years since the last conference, which produced impactful, meaningful changes to improve USDA nutrition assistance programs, including SNAP, WIC and school meals. The conference will work towards ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases and disparities in the U.S. by 2030.

Liberation Farms allows families to grow food for themselves. In 2020, support from community partners helped move farm operations onto a single property with room for everyone – and a herd of goats, too!

In WIC, specialty formulas are issued with a doctor’s note to participants receiving Food Package III, which is for children with special nutritional needs. These babies have a documented health condition that requires the use of a specialty formula. With specialty formula in short supply, many families have needed an alternative option. WIC state agencies can use a variety of strategies to support participants’ access to specialty formulas.

WIC’s food package helps to supplement a household’s food budget, increasing participants’ food resources and helping to tackle food and nutrition insecurity. Nutrition educators are a critical ingredient to helping the USDA promote and elevate nutrition security.

The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health will be on September 28th – the first of its kind in over 50 years. The conference will focus on nutrition security, which means maintaining consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe and affordable food.