The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children
USDA’s recently released guidance and general memorandum are designed to help State WIC agencies restore or preserve the continued delivery of WIC benefits and to reach potentially newly eligible individuals affected by Hurricane Katrina. The recent guidance includes State agency options to:
- Suspend WIC documentation of residency, income and identity requirements when necessary.
- Allow refugees from Hurricane Katrina to use their WIC vouchers to purchase foods in grocery stores in other states.
The 2000 WIC Policy memorandum: “WIC Disaster Policy and Coordination” provides general guidance on how WIC should respond in disaster situations. There are a range of “alternate procedures” options that State WIC agencies can employ to continue WIC services in a disaster including:
- Modifying WIC food package components to accommodate disaster conditions such as loss of refrigeration or unsafe drinking water by issuing for example, ready-to-feed infant formula, UHT milk, or smaller packages of other food items.
- Replacing lost unredeemed WIC food vouchers (prorated for the remainder of the month). WIC does not replace WIC food lost in a disaster.
- Using mobile equipment to provide certification/issuance service to WIC participants in disaster area.
- Shifting to a direct WIC food distribution system allowing WIC participants to receive food directly from WIC when the retail stores are out of commission. This strategy is generally used only after the initial mass distribution of Commodity Disaster Assistance. ( Mississippi normally distributes WIC food through a direct warehouse system but many of those warehouses are now destroyed.)
See most recent USDA WIC guidance
For more information please contact Geri Henchy, ghenchy@frac.org, (202) 986-2200 extension 3025.
