WIC Waiver Extension Toolkit

USDA is running out of time. In one month, critical flexibilities for WIC providers will expire. Join the National WIC Association (NWA) in calling for USDA to exercise its authority to extend remote services and keep WIC families safe for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Get involved with this advocacy toolkit from NWA — complete with social media messaging, blog posts, and examples of how you can elevate your WIC voice.

Included in this toolkit:

• Want to Fight for the Safety of WIC Families? Join the #WICWaiversWork Campaign: Find instructions, examples, and messaging for how you can take action to protect WIC families.
• WIC Waivers Work: A Message from Rev. Douglas Greenaway: Hear from our President & CEO on the importance of WIC waivers.
• WIC Providers, Medical Community Urge USDA to Immediately Extend COVID-Related Flexibilities: NWA joins with AAP and ACOG to call on USDA to extend WIC waivers. WIC providers need the flexibility to keep pregnant moms, babies, and kids safe!
• Waiver Talking Points: NWA has compiled talking points that highlight the need for WIC waiver extensions. Use these in your conversations with advocates, legislators, and other stakeholders.
• Letter to USDA: Send a letter to USDA urging them to extend WIC waivers. NWA has developed a template that your local agency can draw from and adapt.
• Letter to the Editor: Reach out to your local media and pitch a letter to the editor, which elevates the community conversation about WIC and potentially reaches families that are eligible but not yet participating. NWA has developed a template that you can adapt as you reach out to local media partners.

WIC Advocacy Toolkit

No one knows WIC as well as WIC staff! That knowledge and experience present you and your colleagues with the unique opportunity to be a voice for WIC. This toolkit from the National WIC Association walks you through a variety of advocacy activities with tips, worksheets, and examples of how you can elevate your WIC voice.

In this toolkit you will find:

• Why Advocacy Matters: Explains why it’s important to talk about WIC on a local, state and national level.
• What is Advocacy: Lists all of the ways you can advocate for WIC. 
• When Does Advocacy Become Lobbying? Describes the differences between advocacy and lobbying and how you can advocate without stepping into the territory of lobbying. 
• WIC Funding Basics: Provides an explanation of how WIC is funded.
• Building Support for WIC in Your Community: Engaging Partners and Forging Coalitions: Describes the importance of partnerships to your advocacy work and how to go about building strategic partnerships. 
• Developing Strong Advocacy Messages: Describes how to create effective advocacy messages. 
• Key Messages and Talking Points for 2018: Includes NWA's key messages and talking points for this year. 
• Contacting Elected Officials: Provides tips for contacting policymakers, leading effective WIC advocacy meetings, hosting site visits, and other activities involving elected officials.
• Engaging the Media to Promote WIC: Provides tips on how to engage traditional press as well as social media to advocate for WIC.
• Telling Your WIC Story: Why and How: Provides guidance for effective WIC storytelling, through verbal and written stories as well as photography and videos. 
• Evidence-Based WIC Advocacy: Explains how to effectively use data and statistics in your advocacy messages. 

Where Can I Learn More About Current WIC Policy Issues?

• Fiscal Year 2020 WIC Legislative and Appropriations Agenda
• Fiscal Year 2020 WIC Policy Priorities
• Fiscal Year 2020 WIC Nutrition & Public Health Policy Priorities
• 2019 State Advocacy Priorities
• WIC Funding Basics (process of funding program)
• Support the Wise Investment in our Children (WIC) Act

Our publications page has links to many other NWA-produced fact sheets, papers, and reports about the WIC program that provide background and context for current WIC policy issues.

What Can I Do to Help?

• Email, call or visit your representative. Use this search tool to find your elected officials and their contact info.

What Should I Say to My Representative?

• Share your State’s WIC profile for state-specific data and participant stories.
• Watch what other NWA members had to say about talking with policymakers in the video below.

Is This Advocacy or Lobbying?

• This is a lobbying activity. If your job is funded through the government, you can send the email during your break time or after work.
• Not all advocacy efforts are lobbying. Advocacy is not lobbying when you’re informing members of Congress about WIC and highlighting WIC’s achievements: You are educat­ing policymakers about WIC. This helps promote a positive image of WIC and hopefully translates into favorable WIC policies in the future.
• Examples of non-lobbying advocacy: clearing up misconceptions about WIC; explaining the positive impacts of the improved WIC food packages; describing the importance of breastfeeding peer counselors; and conveying WIC successes.
• For more specifics, read When Does Advocacy Become Lobbying?

Other WIC-Related Advocacy

We engage in various public health-related advocacy issues. Check back for updates on other ways you can take action to support WIC!

How Can I Learn More About WIC Policy?

Contact our government affairs team:

• Brian Dittmeier, bdittmeier@nwica.org, Senior Public Policy Counsel
• Noora Kanfash, nkanfash@nwica.org, State Public Policy Associate