WIC Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Voucher Program (CVV)

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) aims to improve access to nutritious foods for low-income pregnant women, mothers, and young children. After enrolling in WIC, participants receive monthly checks, vouchers, or transfers to their Electronic Benefit Transaction (EBT) card that are to be used to purchase specific, WIC-approved foods, which provide important nutrients that participants otherwise may lack.

Given its focus on nutrition, fruits and vegetables are an important component of WIC. Since the early 1990s, Congress has supported programs created to improve WIC participants’ access to fresh fruits and vegetables from farmers markets: the Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP), and the WIC Cash Value Voucher (CVV).

WIC Cash Value Voucher In 2005, the Institute of Medicine recommended that the WIC food basket be revised with a greater focus on fruits and vegetables in order to better meet the dietary guidelines for Americans. This report led to the creation of the WIC Cash Value Voucher (CVV) program in 2007. CVV checks are issued monthly, to be used only for purchasing fruits and vegetables, whether fresh, frozen, canned, or dried. Two levels of CVVs are distributed: children are allocated $6/month; mothers, $10/month. While all other monthly WIC vouchers are for a specific quantity of food (i.e., one loaf of bread), CVV checks were structured differently – as a specific dollar amount – in order to grant participants more flexibility in the fruits and vegetables they purchase with their CVVs. Participants do not receive cash back if their purchase comes in at less than the voucher’s amount.

The decision of whether CVVs can be accepted at farmers markets is left up to the state. Of the 90 state agencies (including all 50 states; Washington, DC; Puerto Rico; four territories; and 34 Indian Tribal Organizations) only 27 allowed CVV to be used at farmers markets in 2019.

States decide how to handle purchases that come in over the voucher amount, and can either allow participants to combine multiple CVV coupons to cover the cost of their purchase, or use cash or other tender to cover the remainder of the purchase. The USDA tracks CVV use in the aggregate, regardless of whether CVVs are used at farmers markets or grocery stores. As a result, there is no national-level insight into CVV use at farmers markets. Some individual states, however, do report such use.

In Arizona, less than 1% of CVVs are being redeemed at farmers markets; the remainder are used at grocery stores. However, CVVs used at farmers markets are redeemed for nearly their full value (99%), while those used at grocery stores (93.5%) are not. In other words, a $10 CVV used at farmers markets is used to purchase $9.90 worth of produce, versus only $9.35 at grocery stores. California is another state reporting CVV use. In 2012, while close to 13 million CVVs were redeemed in California, fewer than 5,000 of those (< 1%) were used at farmers markets. This may be due, at least in part, to the relatively small number of farmers markets accepting CVVs:  31 of California’s 450+ farmers markets (< 7%). Further, of the 200 farmers who have been trained to accept CVV, only 65 (33%) actively redeemed CVVs in 2012. This is likely due to the regulations for participating farmers, which are more rigorous than FMNP.

States that have made CVVs a priority have dramatically improved their use at farmers markets. In New York, $29,000 in CVVs were redeemed at farmers markets in 2011, compared to only $13,000 in 2010—an increase of over 120%. Maryland achieved a ten-fold increase in CVV redemption at farmers markets just from 2010 (approximately $3,000) to 2012 (approximately $33,000). This significant increase is due to an innovative program started in 2010: The Eat Fresh Maryland Network. The network brings together a variety of stakeholders interested in increasing the redemption of all federal nutrition benefits programs—including but not limited to CVV—at Maryland farmers markets. More than 30 members, including government representatives, farmers market managers, farmers, and community groups, come together to share best practices and coordinate marketing strategies.  The network instituted co-promotion and uniform training for the WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Programs as well as CVV throughout the state. Statewide recognition of the programs, combined with training and tools for market managers facilitated a strong connection between Maryland’s farmers markets and its federal nutrition beneficiaries.

Why aren’t all states taking advantage of the opportunity to use CVV at farmers markets? There are a number of challenges to increasing the impact of the program.

1)      Administrative cost to the state

The WIC CVV program does not provide states with additional funds for staff to train and work with participating farmers. This may be contributing to the low rates (23%) of state agencies that have approved CVVs to be used at farmers markets.

2)      Rigorous regulations for participating farmers

As noted above, a major barrier to increasing the number of farmers participating in CVV is the program’s demanding regulations. Before participating in CVV, farmers are required to attend training sessions and provide their banking information to the state.

The process of accepting and redeeming a WIC CVV check is much more onerous for farmers than with FMNP. Some of the steps farmers must take when accepting and redeeming CVVs include:

  • Checking the WIC participant’s ID to ensure they’re using their own CVVs
  • Making sure the purchase amount is written correctly
  • Checking the date to ensure the CVV can still be used
  • Cashing the check at a certified bank within the correct time frame

If anything goes wrong when redeeming CVVs, farmers pay bounced check fees. Further, farmers can be hit with strict penalties for failing to follow any of the state’s specific regulations around WIC CVV use. Though some states indicate that they have no intention of enforcing these penalties, the existent of the penalties discourages some farmers from participating.

3)      CVV check structure can be challenging for consumers

As the CVVs are for relatively high denominations ($6-$10) and as participants must use the entire check at once, it may be more difficult for consumers to accurately calculate how much produce they can purchase with each CVV than with FMNP ($2-$4 denominations).

CVV’s annual budget of nearly $500 million offers an opportunity to dramatically expand the impact of the incentive created with FMNP. Though FMNP has had significant positive impacts on access to fresh produce and creating a new customer base for farmers, the program’s budget ($15.3 million in 2013) is limiting.

CVV has enormous potential to generate long-lasting and consistent benefits for consumers and farmers. Where FMNP helps bring new customers to farmers markets and educate them about the benefits of shopping at such markets, the CVV structure—benefits sent every monthly, rather than once a year—will help encourage those new customers to shop at farmers markets on a regular basis, assuring consistent access to fresh produce and education about nutrition and farmers markets. Given the small percentage of every dollar spent on fruits and vegetables at traditional retail outlets that goes to the produce growers, the return on investment of CVV on American farmers is presently minimal. However, as stated above, CVV has the potential to direct upwards of $500 million a year to farmers markets—nearly 25 times more than the annual FMNP allocation. In New York, where CVV can be used at farmers markets, over $30 million will be distributed each year to WIC recipients compared to only $5.5 million distributed with FMNP. However, as noted above, only $29,000 of the $30 million in distributed CVV was redeemed at farmers markets—far less than 1%. Let’s get more markets to take advantage of this significant potential.

To read the full article about WIC CVV and WIC FMNP, please see the November 7th article, Trending at the Market: WIC Cash Value Vouchers (CVV).