Intent vs. Implementation—Food Allocation to Adult Males in WIC Households

Abstract

The intent of the Special Supplemental Food and Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program is found in its name—to increase the health status of a targeted group through supplemental food. Households often contain multiple members who are categorically ineligible, including older ineligible children and adult males. This paper focuses on potential spillover of benefits to adult males. Comparing multiple outcomes across treated and untreated households, the author finds evidence that consumption of certain WIC foods is higher among men in WIC households compared to the most appropriate comparison group: income eligible non-WIC participants. The author also finds evidence that this difference is attributable to food-sharing and not an income effect as there is no increase in the consumption of other, non-WIC foods. The increased consumption of cereal, milk and juice is only remarkable among married men in WIC households and not among single fathers. Additional evidence looking at the differences between married and single women’s food consumption suggests that food is siphoned from the mother and not from the children; this finding supports the altruistic parent food allocation hypothesis. Most of the results are not robust to full controls, indicating that unobservable propensity to consume WIC foods may be driving entry into the program. If the findings of this study are a true representation of WIC implementation, policy makers should weigh whether this outcome is desirable in terms of the program mission. Citation: Martin-Anderson S (2014) Intent vs. Implementation—Food Allocation to Adult Males in WIC Households. J Nutr Health Sci 1(3): 307. doi: 10.15744/2393-9060.1.307 The Special Supplemental Food and Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is a federal transfer program that provides vouchers for the purchase of approved foods. The program is funded and administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and run at the local level by various agents, both public and private not-for-profit. In 2006, the year before this study period, federal expenditures for the WIC program totaled 6.2 billion dollars accounting for 11% of the USDA’s 53 billion dollar food assistance budget. The 2006 program enrollment was approximately 8 million women, infants and children. The ultimate objective of the WIC program is to improve the health status of the country’s nutritionally at-risk by increasing the consumption of healthy foods. Pregnant and nursing women, as well as their children age zero to five, are eligible pending income qualification and designation of nutritional “at-risk” status. Eligible women who enroll in the WIC program take paper or electronic vouchers to participating stores and purchase approved foods; unlike food stamps (SNAP), there is little or no flexibility in food purchases. By restricting purchases to WIC-approved foods, this policy avoids the potential for the negative behaviors associated with SNAP; SNAP participants consume more added sugars than income-eligible non-SNAP participants [1]. WICapproved foods during the study period included infant formula, infant cereal, milk, cheese, eggs, dried beans and juice [1]. Since the study period, bread, fresh fruit and vegetables have been added to the food basket [2]. The market value of the WIC food package is roughly 35 dollars per person for this paper’s study period and averaged 90 dollars per WIC household [3].