Arizona’s Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) is moving from paper checks to an electronic system thanks to a $5M grant we received from USDA this week. WIC electronic benefit transfer (or EBT) will provide enhanced service and benefits to participants, clinic staff, and WIC vendors (grocery stores authorized to accept Arizona WIC benefits). Stores in Arizona that provide WIC services sell about $150 million in healthy foods to WIC participants each year. Our goal is to pick an EBT implementation contractor in the next several months. We plan on piloting WIC EBT by spring 2016 and complete state-wide rollout by early 2017.
WIC is a national nutrition and breastfeeding program that serves low income women, infants, and children and provides nutrition education, breastfeeding information and support, referrals to community services, and healthy foods. The Arizona WIC Program serves more than 160,000 women, infants, and children each month with services provided by 21 local agencies.
