WIC — the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — is one of the most effective public health nutrition programs in the United States, providing nutrition support, healthy food access, and health referrals to low-income pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age five. It currently serves more than six million people nationwide.
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced WIC programs across the country to rapidly shift from in-person-only services to phone calls, video appointments, text messages, and online education, it was an act of necessity. Five years later, new research from Public Health Foundation Enterprises WIC (PHFE WIC), a program of Heluna Health, suggests it may also have been one of the most consequential improvements to the program in decades.
And with federal waivers enabling those remote services set to expire on September 30, 2026, the stakes for families couldn’t be higher.
The Question Behind the Research
For more than a decade before the pandemic, WIC participation had been declining — driven in large part by the same barriers that have long made the program difficult to access: limited transportation, complex scheduling, and the requirement to appear in person at a WIC site. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid shift to remote service delivery in 2020, participation stabilized and then began to rise again, particularly among children ages one to four.
PHFE WIC researchers Catherine Yepez, MPH, and Shannon Whaley, PhD, set out to document what the field had long suspected: that remote and hybrid service delivery hadn’t just maintained WIC participation during an emergency — it had fundamentally improved the program’s ability to reach and retain the families who need it most.
The Study
The research team analyzed administrative data from 5,636 families with infants born in January and February 2024, following them through 15 months of age. The focus was on the one-year recertification window; the single moment when WIC participation drops most steeply because families must actively re-enroll to keep receiving benefits.
Over the study period, families had a total of 85,735 documented contact days with PHFE WIC. Those contacts spanned every modality the program offers: in-person visits, phone counseling, incoming text messages, online individual education, group education sessions, and video calls.
PHFE WIC is uniquely positioned to conduct this kind of research. As the largest local WIC agency in the country — and the only one with a dedicated in-house research team — it serves over 190,000 individuals monthly across Los Angeles County, Orange County, and San Bernardino County, generating the kind of large, diverse, longitudinal dataset that most agencies simply don’t have.
What the Data Show
The findings are both clear and timely.
Most importantly: every additional contact with WIC, regardless of type, increased a family’s likelihood of recertifying by 14%. The message is straightforward: Staying connected matters. The more touchpoints families have with the program, the more likely they are to stay enrolled.
When the team looked at specific contact types, families who used phone counseling, online individual education, or group education were significantly more likely to recertify compared to those who did not use those modalities. In-person contacts remain an important option for families who prefer face-to-face services, but remote services were at least as effective at keeping families enrolled as requiring families to come in.
“We’ve known anecdotally that flexibility in how families access WIC makes a difference. What this study gives us is the evidence to back that up. Every contact — whether it’s a phone counseling, an online class, or a group education session — is an opportunity to keep a family connected to the program. That connection is what recertification is built on.” – Catherine Yepez, MPH, Associate Data Scientist and Co-PI, PHFE WIC
Why This Matters Beyond Los Angeles
PHFE WIC serves one of the most racially and ethnically diverse populations in the country — approximately 81% Hispanic or Latino families, alongside Black and African American, Asian, and other communities. The fact that remote services were associated with better recertification outcomes across this diverse population is significant.
Language access has long been a barrier to WIC participation. Remote services, particularly phone and online options, give families the ability to connect with staff who speak their language without the logistical burden of traveling to a specific site. The data suggest this flexibility may be especially meaningful for communities that have historically faced barriers to in-person services.
“In 28 years of studying this program, WIC has gone through many changes. What this research tells us is that the shift to hybrid service delivery isn’t just a pandemic accommodation — it’s a genuine improvement in how WIC reaches families. The data are clear: when families have more ways to connect with WIC, they stay enrolled. And when families stay with WIC, they have significantly better health outcomes. That’s what the program is designed to do.” – Shannon E. Whaley, PhD, Director of Research and Evaluation and Co-PI, PHFE WIC
A Deadline That Can’t Be Ignored
The federal waivers that enabled remote WIC service delivery are set to expire on September 30, 2026. If those waivers are not extended or if Congress does not act to make remote service options permanent, WIC agencies could be required to return to in-person-only certification requirements that haven’t been in effect since 2020.
For many families, that would mean choosing between making a trip to a WIC office and simply not recertifying. Research on why families leave WIC points consistently to the same barriers: limited transportation, the difficulty of scheduling in-person appointments, and long wait times at WIC sites. These are not minor inconveniences — for a working parent who can’t afford to take time off, or a family without a car in a city built around driving, an in-person-only requirement can be the difference between staying in the program and dropping out. Remote and hybrid service delivery was designed to address exactly these barriers. The data now show that it works.
This research was designed, in part, to ensure that when policymakers make decisions about those waivers, they have real-world data and not just assumptions about what families need.
“Our staff shows up every day to help families access the nutrition support they need. What this research confirms is that when we give families multiple ways to connect with us, they are more likely to participate and stay on the program. This is not an administrative convenience. It is ensuring families have access to WIC Program services and healthy food for their children. We can’t afford to take that away.” – Denise Gee, Executive Director, PHFE WIC
The Heluna Health Commitment
PHFE WIC is a program of Heluna Health, a national nonprofit public health organization dedicated to advancing health access and strengthening communities. Heluna Health’s support of this research reflects its broader commitment to generating evidence that drives policy change and to ensuring that the programs it operates are models for the field.
This study was funded by a Healthy Eating Research (HER) grant 82566 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The manuscript is currently under preparation for submission to the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, with conference presentations already completed at the Healthy Eating and Food Policy Research Conference in Chicago (April 2025) and the National WIC Association Annual Conference in Dallas (May 2025).
“At Heluna Health, we believe evidence should drive policy — and that programs serving mothers, infants, and young families deserve the resources and flexibility to do their best work. This research from our PHFE WIC team is rigorous, timely, and directly relevant to decisions being made in Washington right now. The data show that hybrid service delivery works, and we are committed to making sure that message reaches the people who need to hear it.” – Christine Sow, President & CEO, Heluna Health
What Comes Next
The research team is already planning the next phase of analysis, including a closer look at how contact type affects WIC benefit redemption and infant feeding outcomes — and a deeper dive into the texting finding. They’re also following the cohort forward to examine what retention looks like as these children reach age two, a period when WIC participation historically declines again.
The findings from this study are already in the hands of WIC researchers, state and national association leaders, and policymakers working to preserve remote service options before the federal waivers expire on September 30, 2026. The case for keeping hybrid WIC services is now backed by data.
But data alone don’t change policy — people do. If you believe that families should be able to access WIC by phone, online, and in person, let your U.S. Senators and Representatives know. Tell them that flexible, hybrid service delivery matters to the communities they serve — and that the families who rely on this program are counting on them to protect it.
