For 50 years, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has been a vital pillar of public health in the United States, supporting millions of nutritionally at-risk mothers, infants and children. Right now, the program reaches about 6.7 million mothers and children each month.

As the nation’s first "Food as Medicine" program, WIC has a proven track record of improving pregnancy outcomes, increasing breastfeeding rates and enhancing child nutrition. However, as WIC celebrates its half-century of success, the organization is also looking to evolve and address modern challenges, including conservative lawmakers becoming increasingly intent on cutting the funding of federal nutrition programs.

Related

The group’s new “2024 State of WIC Report: Celebrating 50 Years of Impact,” released this week, outlines an ambitious roadmap for future success, highlighting key areas for improvement, including the modernization of technology, increased outreach to eligible families and sustained program funding.

Georgia Machell, the president of the National WIC Association, spoke with Salon Food about some of the most pressing recommendations from the report, such as the push to make remote services and online ordering a permanent feature. She also discussed the challenges of expanding access to underrepresented communities and the crucial policy actions needed to ensure WIC’s future.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

One of the most interesting recommendations in the report — and one that might surprise people — is this push to modernize the technology associated with WIC, like making online orders and virtual enrollment options permanent. I was hoping you could talk a bit about why that recommendation was made, as well as some of the promises and challenges of modernizing the program?

Yes, absolutely. I think that’s a great question to start with, and I think we have to take a few steps back and look at the past few years and everything that’s happened within the WIC program, and then also just within society generally. I think the pandemic really lit a fire under the WIC program to think about how WIC services were being provided to participants, and what participants needed to enhance that experience.

I think one of the ways we think about improving the WIC participant experience at any point in the WIC participant journey is by increasing choice and........

© Salon