Washington State WIC agencies supporting local food producers through creative partnerships

The purpose of the Fruit and Vegetable Partnership Program is to build the capacity of local WIC agencies to engage community partners in innovative initiatives to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in WIC families. The project takes advantage of the rapidly growing interest in local food systems and is guided by a statewide advisory group of multi-sector food systems leaders. Formative evaluation found strong interest for this project from both local WIC agencies and local food systems advocates. In the first year of the project local WIC agencies and their community partners developed proposals for start-up funding for community-based initiatives, and a team of state WIC staff and university evaluators provided training and technical assistance. Twenty five proposals were submitted, and 12 were selected for funding by the advisory committee based on their feasibility, innovation and sustainability. Projects focus on home and community gardening, hands-on purchasing and food preparation, and connecting families with farmers through market baskets and other mechanisms. Project evaluation triangulates WIC client fruit and vegetable consumption data, measures of partnership functioning, and qualitative process data. The evaluation team has identified factors that enhance partnership effectiveness and WIC client engagement. Local partnership projects have faced challenges during a time of reduced support for local public health and loss of experienced WIC nutrition personnel; determinants of resilience, flexibility and sustainability have been identified. Lesson learned from the project will be used to help structure systems to implement sustainable, effective community projects that build on existing community advocacy and infrastructure.