Summary: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breast-feeding, and postpartum women; infants; and children up to age five who are at nutritional risk. GAO found that states had unspent WIC money for various reasons. In fiscal year 1996, these funds totaled $121.6 million, or about 3.3 percent of that year's $3.7 billion WIC grant. Virtually all the directors of local WIC agencies reported that their clinics had tried to improve the access of working women to WIC benefits. The two most frequently cited strategies were (1) scheduling appointments instead of taking participants on a first-come, first-served basis and (2) allowing someone other than the participant to pick up the food vouchers, as well as nutrition information, and pass these benefits on to the participant. States are using various cost-containment initiatives that have saved WIC millions of dollars each year and have enabled more people to participate in the program. Some of these initiatives include obtaining rebates on WIC foods, limiting participants' food choices to lowest cost items, and limiting the number of stores that participate in WIC.
