This report is a census of women, infants, and children who were participating in the WIC program in April, 2012. The report includes information on participant income and nutrition risk characteristics, and estimates breastfeeding initiation rates for WIC infants.
The Food, Nutrition and Conservation Act of 2008 (also known as the Farm Bill) authorized funds to pilot test and rigorously evaluate the impact of financial incentives at the point-of-sale for the purchase of fruits, vegetables or other healthful foods on the diet quality of participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program FNA refers to this effort as the Healthy Incentives Pilot or HIP. HIP operated for 14 months in Hampden County, MA.
The Farm Bill authorized $20 million for pilot projects to evaluate health and nutrition promotion in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to determine if incentives provided to recipients at the point-of-sale increase the purchase of fruits, vegetables or other healthful foods among SNAP participants.
The Healthy Incentive Pilot (HIP) is being evaluated using a rigorous research design. The overall goal of the evaluation is to assess the impact of HIP on participants’ intake of fruits and vegetables.
The Early Implementation Report addresses the processes involved in implementing and operating HIP, focusing on the early implementation period, from pilot inception to March 2012.