The Impact of WIC on Farmers

USDA Deputy Undersecretary Stacy Dean and several members of Congress provided updates on emerging and pressing food/nutrition and WIC policy issues at the National WIC Association’s National Policy Conference. A number of these issues affect grocers and others in the retail food industry, including a tripling of funds for vegetables and fruits for low-income families through WIC, a once-in-a-decade update to the WIC food packages expected in early 2022, child nutrition reauthorization getting underway in the House of Representatives, proposed regulations for online shopping expected in April 2022 and more. With more on the effect for farmers and ranchers, our guest is Brian Dittmeier, Esq., the Senior Director of Public Policy at the National WIC Association. Brian advocates for key WIC priorities, including efforts to secure WIC funding, expand access to nutritious foods, and address maternal health disparities. Brian manages NWA’s relationship with Congress and the Administration, leads targeted grassroots advocacy efforts, and coordinates policy partnerships with child nutrition stakeholders and industry.

Transcript

Phil: 0:05

US Farmers and Ranchers in action would like to recognize the sponsors of the 2021 Honor the Harvest Forum. Welcome to Farm Food Facts, the webcast and podcast of the US farmers and ranchers in action. I'm your host, Phil Lempert. U S D A deputy undersecretary, Stacey Dean, and several members of Congress provided updates on emerging and pressing food and nutrition and WIC policy issues that the national WIC associations national policy conference, a number of these issues affect grocers and a others in the retail food industry, including a tripling of funds for vegetables and fruits for low income families through WIC, a once in a decade update to the food packages that are expected in early 2022. Child nutrition, reauthorization getting underway in the house of representatives, proposed regulations for online shopping expected in April, 2022 and a lot more with more on the effect for farmers and ranchers. Our guest is Brian Dittmeier, Esq., the Senior Director of public policy at the national WIC association. Brian advocates for key WIC priorities, including efforts to secure WIC funding, expand access to nutritious foods and address maternal health disparities. He also manages NWAS relationship with Congress and the administration leads targeted grassroots advocacy efforts and coordinates policy partnerships with child nutrition stakeholder in industry. Brian, welcome to farm food.

Brian: 1:47

Thank you for having me on Phil.

Phil: 1:49

So the top line, the most important question is how is all this gonna impact farmers and retailers?

Brian: 1:56

That's a great question. And, you know, WIC has always been a public private partnership with the ag culture sector and the retail grocery industry. Uh, we have for nearly 50 years ensured that low income families can shop like any other family to access nutritious foods. But what we're seeing here is a historic investment in the WIC benefit. You know, it's been fairly level for the last 50 years. I was just going through some documents from the Bob do archives after he passed away, showing that the WIC benefit in 1976 was only$20 a month. Well, fast forward to 2020, and it's still$36 a month. So we haven't seen a huge expansion in the WIC benefit, but what's happened over the last year is that Congress has doubled down on wicks, historic, uh, and uh, long unprecedented science based food package, taking a look at the fruit and vegetable benefit in particular and plusing that up quite significantly. So you've taken a$36 food package and you've added for adult participants, 30 extra dollars in fruits and vegetables. And so that nearly doubles the overall value of the food benefit for WIC, with a particular benefit to producers in the fruit and vegetable sector.

Phil: 3:19

I'm so happy that you talked about the education part because WIC, um, unlike a lot of other programs that are out there and there's some great programs out there really has as its foundation, the education about nutrition.

Brian: 3:35

Yeah. That's a key piece of WIC and you know, it really does distinguish WIC from other federal programs because to, to achieve positive nutrition, it's not just about the foods that you purchase, but it's how you integrate those foods into your diet. And there's a, a wealth of research that really indicates that there's spillover effects for the rest of the family. So, you know, WIC is of course targeted at the children, but we see that not just the moms, but the dads and the grandparents and other members of the family change their shopping habits and their, uh, cooking patterns to reflect the foods that are introduced through WIC and with the increase in foods and vegetables. One of the greatest pieces we're seeing is increased variety in foods that are purchased by WIC consumers. So you're, um, you know, pairs, cherries, berries having four, five times the amount of purchases because there's added WIC benefit available for fruits and vegetables. And so that not only means that you can introduce a greater variety, um, to children at a critical time, but it's really when those lifelong taste preferences are being developed. So you're exposing children to a, a greater variety of tastes and, and hopefully integrating those tastes into their lifelong diet patterns.

Phil: 4:51

So when you look at the, you know, the average WIC recipient, that family, what are some of the issues that you see that, that we really need to put, whether it's more money, more effort, more education too, to make it an even more effective program?

Brian: 5:11

You know, we we've seen this WIC benefit, bump impact 4.7 million WIC participants across the country. And I think the clearest lesson is that cost is the biggest barrier to healthy diet. We have seen initial data showing that, um, with added fruit and vegetable benefits that families have very quickly caught off with higher consumption of fruits and vegetables for children. It usually takes a while for consumption patterns to purchasing trends. But what we're seeing is that it's almost immediate that an average quarter cup increase per day in child consumption of fruits and vegetables because of this added value to the WIC benefit. And so that has an implications for the producers and the retailers, of course, but it really goes to show that when we put our money, uh, towards healthier and more nutritious options, consumers are ready for that. It's just a matter of do they have the resources to meet these higher cost food items?

Phil: 6:14

So if you could wa you know, your magic wand and, you know, you could take all these, uh, WIC benefit families and do one thing to help them even more than you're doing now, what would that be?

Brian: 6:31

Well, I think I wish I had could do two things. Um, but, uh, the first and most important piece is that we have to expand the value of the WIC benefit permanently. And so we're seeing such great success with this targeted increase in prin vegetable benefits, but let's go back to those numbers from before. If you're looking at what the WIC benefit was in 1976, translate that to today's dollars. That that would mean that the WIC benefits should be about a hundred dollars per month per participant. So we've fallen well behind inflation over the years. And we know that that means that the purchasing power of w families is not what it should be both to assure a healthy diet and to return federal investment back to our local economy as well. And so the best way we can have this sustained impact is to double down on the value of Ws, effective food benefit, and to ensure that families have the resources they need, the second piece and a piece we're working on on the clinic side as well is to build a modern and accessible experience so that we can keep kids on for the duration of eligibility. WIC is an not an infant formula and breastfeeding program. WIC is a public health nutrition program that, that provides healthy foods till kids are ready to go to school. And so that piece is an important part as well, is that if children can retain on the program and stay for the duration of eligibility, we can ensure that we're addressing these big challenges, like chronic diet related conditions, obesity type two diabetes, and, and helping children to grow, um, and get a healthy start to life all with sustained WIC investment for those for first five years. And the way that we do that is through remote w services and, and modern shopping options, really building a program that reflects the experience that families have in healthcare settings, in traditional retail settings, uh, and building a program that's rooted in the 21st century.

Phil: 8:29

So let's talk about retailers first. What would you hope that every soup market, every grocery store, whether it's an independent or chain could do to reinforce what you're trying to do?

Brian: 8:47

Yeah, we we've been hearing such, um, great feedback from the retailers because it really does allow for, um, the most versatile part of the WIC benefit to be utilized in their stores. And we we've collected data from 29 state w agencies that goes to show that when you triple the value of the WIC benefit for fruits and vegetables, it leads to triple the value of the transaction that you're seeing in stores. And it really goes to that point around the, as well, you see that families are, are branching out in what they're purchasing, they're purchasing, um, items like pre sliced produce that would've potentially been a little more expensive, but bring such added convenience to young families, um, who, who are just trying to create snacks for their kids and, and introduce healthy snacks into their kids' routine. Um, and we know that that plays out on the store level as well. It, it sense it's so versatile when a store has, uh, limited stock or is trying to do certain promotions, uh, they can be responsive and reflexive to, to this, uh, new added value that's available through WIC.

Phil: 9:56

And, you know, the, the key question for us, for our audience is what could and should farmers and ranchers throughout the us be doing to reinforce it, to help, to support it, to make sure that, that their, you know, congressmen, their senators are behind this.

Brian: 10:16

That's a great point as well, because while farmers and ranchers may not feel the immediate impact in the way that retailers are, they're not a checkout all most of the time, uh, ringing those purchases up. But we do know that that funding then trickles up the food supply chain. We know that when there are added sales in a reliable, consistent market, it throughout the month for fruit and vegetable purchases and for all the other products on the way food package, that benefits up the food supply chain to the farmers and ranchers and, and a key point too, is that with added value for fruits and vegetables, we are hopeful that that will trickle across the food package and for grains for, for, um, you know, seafood for, uh, all of the other pieces of the food package would lead to higher redemption levels as well. A and so we are encouraged for dairy as well, you know, making sure that all the elements of the food package have higher redemptions and that all of that value then trickles back up the food supply chain to the agriculture sector. And I think a key piece here to keep in mind is that right now we're talking about the fruit and vegetable increase, which is targeted to a specific part of the food package, but the us department of agriculture has the opportunity in the coming months to completely revisit the wick food packages, building further alignment with the dietary guideline, but also driving forward changes that will improve access to whole grains, improve access, uh, to different dairy options, to improve access to fruit and vegetables and seafood. And all of these kind of holistic changes are waiting on U S D a action. And so it's two prong, I think, fr, uh, farmers and ranchers need to be elevating the importance of the fruit and vegetable benefit to Congress. The fact that we needed, we need added value for the WIC benefit, but we also need to hold U S D a to their timeline and make sure that that food package review rule get done, uh, because that's gonna be the one that delivers some permanent change and consistent, um, higher value for the WIC benefit in the long term,

Phil: 12:22

Looking into your crystal ball, Brian where's WIC, and five years from now.

Brian: 12:28

I think that with added investment wick can be even stronger than it is today in delivering a healthy, your, um, future for our next generation. You know, I think the added value is going to be the key factor here, because that is how we will retain participants. That's how we'll deliver more nutritious foods to families. And that's how we'll double down on our public private partnership with agriculture and the retail grocery industry to improve and continue to drive local economies.

Phil: 12:57

Well, Brian, thank you for your great work, your great insights, and thank you for joining us today on farm food facts.

Brian: 13:05

Thank you so much.

Phil: 13:08

US Farmers and Ranchers in action would like to recognize the sponsors of the 2021 Honor The Harvest forum. Our Sapphire sponsors, Ernst and Young and the United Soybean Board. Our platinum sponsors, the Innovation Center for US Dairy, Native American Agriculture Fund, the Innovation Center for US Dairy, and Kincannon& Reed. Our silver sponsors Dairy West, Nebraska soy, Corteva Agriscience, McDonalds, Cargill and Pepsico. Our bronze sponsors Cobank, Nutrien, and Pollination. And our Copper Sponsors, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, Culver’s, the Foundation for Food& Agriculture Research, and HyVee. For more things, all food and agriculture, please visit us at farmersandranchers.o rg. Also be sure to visit us on Facebook and Instagram at@farmersandranchers as well as on Twitter and LinkedIn@USFRA. Until next time.