WIC Innovation in Missouri

Missouri’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program is important for the nutrition and health of recipients. WIC provides health care referrals, nutrition education, food assistance, and breastfeeding support to nutritionally at-risk and low-income pregnant and postpartum people, as well as infants and young children up to age five. Research shows that WIC improves birth outcomes, diet and nutrition, and decreases health care costs overall. In Missouri, WIC typically serves over 100,000 young children, pregnant and postpartum individuals. Yet, only 53% of eligible Missourians have enrolled in WIC in recent years, and program participation rates have declined over the past decade.

Operation Food Search (OFS) and Missouri Foundation for Health are examining ways to increase program enrollment and remove barriers to participation for WIC-eligible Missourians. The WIC Innovation Project was developed by OFS to increase WIC satisfaction among all stakeholders and to extend the program’s reach to more eligible Missouri families by using the WIC participants’ experiences as a foundational guide. In Phase One, we listened to 49 clients in interviews and surveyed nearly 3,000 WIC-eligible families. In Phase Two, we will test improvements to the program based on the Phase One feedback.

What we learned:
WIC-eligible families during Phase I identified key pain points to program satisfaction when shopping for and purchasing WIC approved items:

• Over 50% of respondents were satisfied with the cashier’s knowledge about WIC.
• Almost 50% of respondents reported experiencing difficulties when checking out.
• More than 40% of respondents agreed they would like more training on how to use the WICShopper App.
• Respondents identified ‘grocery store staff with more knowledge of WIC approved items’ as one of their top improvements to the WIC shopping experience, aside from changes that will require an online EBT card system.
• Similar themes related to grocery store checkout, including delayed and/or cancelled WIC transactions, were shared throughout interviews and open-ended answers in the survey.
• Research shows that training for store managers and staff is an effective method for improving the shopping experience and benefit redemption with WIC.

The second phase of the OFS WIC Innovation Project focuses on developing and improving resources available to participants, local agencies, and retailers to improve the WIC shopping experience and ultimately, increase redemption of WIC benefits. Our researchers are partnering in testing and analyzing the impact of implementing these resources on WIC benefit redemption.

• Retailer resources will be implemented at participating WIC retailers and will have two levels of treatment. Both levels include in-person technical assistance training by the WIC state agency and a pre-post confidence survey for retailer staff on WIC. The second level provides staff with educational videos on WIC and the important ways retailer staff can support a positive program experience.
• Participant resources will be implemented during visits to local agency clinics. A mini-series of videos to address WICShopper app FAQs for participants will be created and distributed through QR codes on WICShopper app handout materials.

Funding Partners: Operation Food Search; Missouri Foundation for Health

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