The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): Background, Trends, and Economic Issues, 2024 Edition

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides supplemental foods, nutrition education, and referrals to healthcare and other social services to low-income, nutritionally at-risk women, infants, and children up to 5 years of age. About 40 percent of all infants and 22 percent of children 1 to 5 years of age in the United States participate in the program. This report explains how WIC works, examines program trends, and discusses some of the major issues facing the program. The issues include program impacts on diet quality and health, barriers and facilitators of program access, and WIC State agency efforts to contain program costs. This report also outlines changes to WIC in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the infant formula supply chain disruptions that occurred in 2022.