Westat Provides Evidence-Based Data to Help Guide WIC

Westat’s Food and Nutrition researchers will be attending the National WIC Association’s 2024 Education and Training Conference in Chicago, Illinois, April 7-10. Our team of experts brings together the talents and interests from both Westat and recently acquired Insight Policy Research, and is excited to join WIC staff, researchers, and community partners in a spirit of learning. Westat attendees include Kiara Amaro-Rivera, PhD, Jake Beckerman-Hsu, PhD, Stacy Gleason, MPH, Courtenay Kessler, PhD, Betsy Thorn, PhD, Kathy Wroblewska, MPP, and Polina Zvavitch, PhD.

This year the National WIC Association is celebrating 50 years of WIC, a vital resource providing health food, nutrition services, and health care support for millions of families. The annual conference is a pivotal event, attracting thought leaders, WIC providers, researchers, and others to celebrate, network, and share knowledge and research.

Westat’s Contributions Over the Years

Westat has a long history of groundbreaking research in WIC and has extensive experience collecting, analyzing, and visualizing data. A few examples of our research for USDA FNS include:

• Examining the feeding practices used by caregivers and the nutrition-related outcomes of children who enrolled in WIC around the time of birth
• Estimating how many individuals who are eligible for WIC are participating in the program, enabling efforts to improve program access
• Surveying current and former WIC participants to learn about how they use their WIC benefits, helping to build support for initiatives to improve the WIC shopping experience

Our work provides key data for FNS and Congress as they allocate funding for WIC. We are currently gearing up to launch a new longitudinal survey of WIC participants and caregivers, which will help FNS to tell the story of WIC and enhance their understanding of the role WIC plays in participants’ dietary and health outcomes.

Research Reports

• WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study 2: Fifth Year Report: Hallmark of WIC research in assessing the impact of WIC on infants and toddlers
• WIC Participant and Program Characteristics (WIC PC) 2022 and National- and State-Level Estimates of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Eligibility and WIC Program Reach in 2020: Showcase Westat’s expertise producing interactive graphics to visualize WIC data
• WIC Nutrition Assessment and Tailoring Study (NATS) report (to be released): Furthers the understanding of the in-clinic participant experience, and how WIC clinic operations adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic