California’s Women, Infants & Children (WIC) Program

by Xenia Mendez

The California Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants & Children (WIC) provides nutritional assistance to low-income pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding individuals, infants, and children under 5 years old. Dads, grandparents, foster parents, and other guardians can access WIC benefits as well. Benefits include:

  • Nutritional education

  • Breastfeeding information and support

  • Debit card to shop for WIC approved foods at WIC approved retailers

  • Referrals to health care and community services

    The WIC website provides information and resources in multiple languages for families to navigate WIC. Helpful tools on the website include:

  • Learning if you are eligible

  • Downloading the WIC app

  • Finding local WIC offices to set up an appointment

  • Shopping guides

    While the website also has a function to search for a WIC food retailer within 10-50 miles of a zipcode, there isn’t a way to visualize or search for stores on a map. To add to WIC’s resources, authorized WIC vendors in California have been mapped out using data from the California Department of Public Health.


    About the Map

    At first glance, the map of California below shows all the grocery/corner stores that accept WIC. This is mapped against the percentage of families living below the poverty level and the percentage of households with children under 18 years that are enrolled in SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps). This data comes from the 2019 American Community Survey (5-Year Estimates). Since there is no data on WIC enrollments, visualizing SNAP households with children is used as a proxy for WIC enrolled households. You can toggle between visualizing low-income or SNAP enrolled households. You can also de-select the “Stores that accept WIC” option to fully view the census data.


    Searching for a WIC Retailer

    WIC recipients can find approved WIC retailers in two ways

      1) Using the “Locate Me” button to zoom into a current location and view stores in proximity.

      2) Entering a city or zipcode in the search bar.

    When either the “Locate Me” or the search bar are used, the map zooms in and blue pins appear over the store locations. You can hover over the pins to glance at the name of a store, or click on the blue pins to get a store address. In addition, for stores that have a webiste, you can click on the store name and be directed to their website.