Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #121304

Anna Maria Siega-Riz, PhD, RD, Dept. of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB# 7445, Rosenau Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7445, 919-962-8410, am_siegariz@unc.edu, Angela Odoms-Young, PhD, Public and Community Health Program, Northern Illinois University School of Allied Health, College of Health and Human Sciences, Dekalb, IL 60115, Jay D. Hirschman, MPH, CNS, Office of Analysis, Nutrition and Evaluation, USDA Food and Nutrition Service, 3101 Park Center Drive, Alexandria, VA 22302, and Debra Luthy, Nutrition Services, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, PO Box 60630, New Orleans, LA 70160.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides supplemental foods, nutrition education, and referrals to low-income pregnant, breastfeeding and postpartum women; infants; and children (ages 1 to 5 years). Despite many changes that have occurred since WIC's inception in 1972, the WIC food packages remain largely unchanged. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to form a committee to complete a two-phase evaluation of the current WIC food packages. The goal of this evaluation was to develop a set of practical recommendations for changes in the foods or amounts of foods provided to better address the nutritional deficits and challenges of the WIC target population and to enhance food acceptability and nutritional quality. Phase I included an assessment of nutritional needs of WIC subgroups and development of a set of criteria to use in revising the food packages. Phase 2 included developing specific recommendations related to changes in the food packages. In this session, members of the IOM Committee to Review the WIC Food Packages will present highlights from their final report, including findings and recommendations from both phases. Jay Hirschman from USDA will describe the process that it is going through to adopt the changes and feedback from the National WIC Association and the Louisiana State WIC Program will be provided concerning the feasibility and acceptability of the new changes.

Learning Objectives: At the end of the session participates will be able to

• Describe the highlights from the IOM report on the WIC food packages,
• Understand the process of adopting changes and providing feedback on the WIC food packages.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.