Cherokee Nation
Good News! SUN Bucks is Available in Your Location
- Website: Summer EBT Program
- Hotline: 539-234-3265 or 800-256-0671 ext. 5275
- Email: wicsebtc@cherokee.org
Under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020 (FFCRA, PL 116-127), the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) had the authority to grant certain programmatic waivers to state agencies that administer WIC. FNS issued waivers to provide flexibilities to requirements that could not be met as a result of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and support continued access to WIC services. By the time FFCRA waiver authority ended on Sept. 30, 2021, FNS had approved 16 types of WIC waivers and 831 individual waiver requests across the 89 WIC state agencies.
This report summarizes the reported use and impact of the physical presence waiver, which waived the statutory requirement that participants be physically present to be certified as eligible for WIC, allowing WIC state and local agencies to remotely certify participants and defer anthropometric (i.e., height, weight) and bloodwork requirements needed to determine nutritional risk for the period the waiver was in effect.
The following links are related reports on the use of FFCRA waivers in WIC during the COVID-19 pandemic: