Family Service WIC Among Just Six to Receive WIC Special Innovation Grant

Family Service WIC Among Just Six to Receive WIC Special Innovation Grant

Family Service WIC (Women, Infants, and Children, familyservicelincoln.org) of Lincoln is one of just six recipients of a prestigious Special Innovation Grant from the Council of State Governments (CSG) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. The March 2021-June 2022 grant is part of a total of $5.2 million in awards to special supplemental nutrition programs, with other recipients including Colorado, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Public Health Foundation Enterprises WIC in California. The funds will support implementation and evaluation of innovative project ideas to improve the WIC certification process. Family Service WIC of Lincoln strives to overcome common barriers to certification and better meet the needs of WIC-eligible families.

During the course of the grant, Family Service WIC will work with CSG and their evaluation partners at Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition to focus on improving the WIC certification process in three ways: Creating an online portal for uploading of documents prior to appointments; adding a way for clients to chat and request appointments on the organization’s website; and revising all WIC information on the Family Service website to include auditory and written information in four additional languages, including Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Kurdish.

Family Service WIC provides healthy foods at no cost to eligible participants—pregnant women; infants and children up to age 5; breastfeeding moms for a year; and postpartum moms for six months—to help keep them healthy. For more information, visit familyservicelincoln.org/wic-women-infants-children, email kabel@familyservicelincoln.org, or call Kayla Abel at (402) 904-5564.