āWIC Division Overview
āIn California, the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program is administered by the California Department of Public Health/Women, Infants and Children Division (CDPH/WIC). CDPH/WIC is one of three divisions within the Center for Family Health (CFH). The division supports the vision of CFH by nourishing and empowering families to grow and build a healthy future.
CDPH/WIC uses the following strategies to carry out our mission:
- Maximize participation in the WIC program: WIC works to maximize participation through retention, re-engagement, and recruitment efforts.
- Provide relevant, quality services to participants: WIC helps families by providing nutrition education, breastfeeding support, healthy foods, and connecting families to healthcare and other community services.
- Support local agencies and vendors to be successful: WIC local agencies and retail food vendors are the public face of WIC and are vital in serving WIC families.
- Ensure integrity and accountability: WIC staff, local agencies, vendors, and families are responsible for being good stewards of public resources.
CDPH/WIC works collaboratively with 84 local agencies, with more than 500 sites, and at over 3,700 authorized retail food vendors, commissaries, and farmers/farmers' markets to serve nearly 1 million participants each month throughout the state.
Major Funding Sources and Administration
The California WIC program is funded by a discretionary grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) with additional revenue obtained in rebates from infant formula manufacturers. The program does not utilize any State General Fund. The federal grant includes separate funding for food expenditures and Nutrition Services and Administration (NSA) funding which is used for State operations and to support local WIC Program operations.
The CDPH/WIC Division is authorized to administer California's WIC program through California Health and Safety (H&S) Code sections 123275-123355.ā
State Publications and Documents
California WIC Dietetic Internships
The CDPH/WIC Division supports āemployees' career advancement by improving access to accredited
dietetic internships (DIs) to become Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDN). CDPH/WIC maintains four WIC-based accredited dietetic internships with local agency sponsors and one collaborative program between the Northeast Valley Health Corporation WIC Program and California State University, Northridge Dietetic Internship. WIC DIs focus on community nutrition management and provide comprehensive skills and practice in all areas of nutrition and dietetics for entry-level RDNs.
Visit
California WIC Dietetic Internships for more information.