The White House Wants to Cut WIC Fruit and Vegetable Benefits by 75%—Here’s What Dietitians Warn

Reviewed by Dietitian Jessica Ball, M.S., RD

Key Points

• Proposed WIC cuts slash fruit and vegetable benefits, risking nutrition for vulnerable families.

• Research shows WIC improves child health and diet, making these cuts “nonsensical,” per dietitians.

• Dietitians stress WIC’s role in bridging food access gaps and supporting public health.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) “provides minimally-processed healthy foods, personalized nutrition education, breastfeeding support and referrals to other services” for women who are currently pregnant, recently pregnant, breastfeeding and/or with kids under five years of age.

So when the Trump administration states that they want to cut funding from WIC, significantly lowering fruit and vegetable benefits for families, that raises some red flags.

Last Friday, the White House released President Trump’s budget request for fiscal year 2027. The request includes major cuts for WIC recipients. If enacted, monthly fruit and vegetable benefits will go from $52 to $13 for breastfeeding mothers and from $27 to $10 for families with young children.

Why does this matter? First, there is ample evidence that WIC has made major healthy changes in children’s eating patterns across the nation.

“Decades of research show that WIC supports more nutritious diets and better health outcomes for children, largely thanks to the fruit and vegetables that the administration is trying to cut from the budget,” EatingWell’s nutrition editor and registered dietitian Madeline Peck, RDN, CDN, explains, referencing a 2026 report indicating that WIC enhances the nutrition and overall health of low-income families.

Other research has shown that families eat healthier when the price of produce is lower—a finding key to a review of 20 observational studies in Annals of Internal Medicine.

“Fruits and vegetables can unfortunately come at a higher price point than other foods at the grocery store, and WIC is a program aimed to help bridge that gap for pregnant people, mothers and children under five years old,” says Jessica Ball, M.S., RD, EatingWell’s senior nutrition editor and a registered dietitian. “These are life stages where quality nutrition is crucial for growth and development, and WIC has been proved by the research to be beneficial.”

Ball adds that expanding access to healthy foods can help improve public health overall.

“Food access is a major issue in the U.S., and it’s a primary contributor to the rising prevalence of chronic diseases,” Ball shares. “Public health and nutrition programs like WIC and SNAP are a proportionally small part of the government budget that offer evidence-backed benefits to the people who use them. Supporting these programs feels more like an ethical decision than a financial one.”

Congress rejected proposed cuts to WIC in the fiscal-year 2026 funding agreement, and the National WIC Association is urging for the same results. One positive from the proposal as noted in the National WIC Association’s release is the “recommended $500 million boost to the WIC contingency fund, which would better position USDA to respond to future government shutdowns or other emergencies.”

Still, limiting the allowances for food and vegetables would be a choice that works directly against years of research.

“Cutting fruit and vegetable access from the WIC program goes against all of the quality evidence we have that WIC improves the health of children and access to nutritious foods in low-income communities,” Peck says. “This unnecessary and nonsensical budget cut will only hurt vulnerable populations.”

After Congress reviews and modifies this budget proposal, House and Senate votes will take place—with agreement needed on all 12 spending bills—before the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, 2026. President Trump will then have the opportunity to sign or veto the version of the budget that Congress passes.

Read the original article on EatingWell