MN WIC Advisory Group Meeting
January 25, 2016 Notes
Advisory Group (AG) Members Participating: Jessica Allred (Winona County); Wendy Bauman (Dakota
County); Deb Boe (Dakota County); Julie Carroll (Brown County); Kari Carlson (Mille Lacs Band); Amber
Converse (Dodge County); Maggie Domski (Washington County); Jenifer Drill (Morrison County);
Rebecca Gruenes (Blue Earth County); Kris Klopp, AG Chair (Mille Lacs County); Amy Lueck (Southwest
HHS CHB); Renee Lukkason (Cass County); Stephanie Olson (Polk County); Mary Peick (Ramsey County);
Liz Short (Aitkin County); Kimberly Vickberg (Anoka County).
AG Member Absent: Jill Bruns (Renville County); Shari Nelson (Crow Wing County); and Heather Thissen
(Kandiyohi County).
MDH Staff in Attendance: Rick Chiat, Food Delivery Unit Supervisor; Pat Faulkner, Nutrition Unit
Supervisor; Kate Franken, Program Unit Supervisor; Carol Rowe, Operation Unit Supervisor; and Rekha
Dixit, Financial Analyst.
Welcome & Introductions
Kris Klopp, AG Chair, welcomed everyone and asked that each person introduce themselves, say what
agency they are from, and what group they represent. We had 8 new members at the meeting, due to
the restructuring of the state from 5 regions to 8, and the new representatives replacing those whose
terms ended December 2015. People also shared with the group, how long they had worked in WIC:
among the group, the range is 1½ years to over 30!
WIC Everyday Heroes
The Everyday Hero Award was developed by the AG to be given to local agency staff chosen by their
colleagues to acknowledge staff’s great work, service, and attitude. The first awards were given out in
August 2015. AG members involved in the process last summer learned a lot and shared some of the
challenges they faced, at the October 2015 AG meeting, at which time the group decided to form an ad
hoc workgroup to address and resolve these issues.
Maggie Domski (Washington Co.), Deb Boe (Dakota Co.), and Liz Short (Aitkin Co.) volunteered to work
on this and report back to the AG at the April 2016 meeting. The next awards will be given out in August
2016.
Imagining the Possibilities for Nutrition Services
This discussion was a continuation of the discussion that began at the October 2015 meeting. At that
time, many AG members wanted to get input from their staff, as well as from the agencies they
represent. Similar issues, interests, comments as in October:
 Relationships are key: face-to-face is important, but when there’s not a need to be in clinic (e.g.,
for secondary ed), having more flexibility & options might benefit both participants & LAs.
 “Meeting participants where they’re at” geographically, technologically, developmentally
(category), and in interests (lots of interest in recipes).
 Potential options to meet different needs: written materials such as NE cards and/or
newsletters; video-clips; podcasts; by phone and/or Skype/Face Time; online education (e.g.,
wichealth.org, others?);
Technology: apps (participants love the Food Finder app); social media; “virtual” connections
(e.g., skype or FaceTime); kiosks in clinic; texting (pushing educational messages out); tweeting;
o Not everyone has a smart phone or computer access;
o Not everywhere is there adequate connectivity;
 Issues to be addressed/considered: security of equipment; data privacy; meeting the Federal
Regulations regarding what constitutes “NE”; documentation in HuBERT; food benefit issuance –
do participants need to be present? (mailing vouchers or with e-WIC loading food packages
remotely).
Pat mentioned that the state agency is planning to do a pilot using tablets in clinic, that would facilitate
showing video-clips to participants to enhance the education. The state staff is also looking into Skype or
FaceTime as an alternative to education by phone in very rural areas.

Mary (Ramsey Co.) mentioned the CA WIC Assoc. Newsletter, which highlighted some proposals
included in the Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) bill, including: serving children not yet in
full-day kindergarten until their 6th birthday; certifying infants to 2 years of age; and authorization to
conduct pilot projects 'to test alternative certification, food delivery procedures, service delivery
methods, and mechanisms for providing additional food assistance’. The Senate Agriculture committee
is discussing the bill this month.
Marketing WIC to County Boards
Interest in how local agencies “marketed” WIC to their county boards came up at the October 2015 AG
meeting, when Renee (Cass Co.) shared with the group how news of the Everyday Hero Award
presented to one of her staff was shared with the PH Director, who shared it with the PH Advisory
Group, and eventually the county Board – who were very interested, invited Renee and her staff person
to a board meeting where they presented her with a certificate of their own.
Most connections with County Boards occur through the local PH Director. Many PH Directors report
regularly (e.g., monthly, quarterly, or annually) to their local PH Advisory Group, often including
information about WIC. Often the PH Director will request information from the WIC Coordinator or ask
the Coordinator to present. It’s essential that whoever is the conduit between PH and the Board,
understand WIC. Board compositions vary – some are more open to hearing & learning about PH & WIC.
When possible, find a “WIC or PH champion” on the board.
AG members know that there are often misunderstandings by people of the WIC Program - presuming it
is like SNAP, and not understanding the focus on nutrition and breastfeeding; not knowing that children
are eligible to age 5. Information AG members suggested be shared w/ County Boards: broadly how
WIC services benefit their community; number of participants being served, and % babies-born in their
county/area participating in WIC; income guidelines (demonstrating that WIC serves both low-income
and working families); the value of vouchers redeemed in their area; dollar value of the food package;
number of WIC authorized stores in their area; information on cost/benefit (or Return on Investment) of
WIC – money spent in WIC results in health care cost savings. Some provide WIC Facts Sheets and/or
“the Word on WIC”. And stories – make it personal and emotion-based.
Activities shared:
• Some PH Directors do an annual update for their county Boards & include information on WIC.
• Anoka: annually gets a proclamation issued for National Nutrition Month, which is presented to
the Board;
• Inviting Board members to a WIC open house (e.g., when opening a new clinic)
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Brown County WIC: The PH Director has an annual agency meeting with PH staff and
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Preparing a WIC information packet or “WIC Newsletter” for the board each year, w/
information listed above;
Aitkin: WIC staff participate in “lunch & learns” for hospital staff, chamber of commerce;
Blue Earth: the county commissioners “walk through” WIC, annually
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County Board members. WIC information was presented this past year, followed by PH
staff and Board members going to a grocery store to find the foods on WIC vouchers.
UPDATES
WIC Budget:
• Final FFY15 funding letters were sent the week of January 19th and funds were to be transferred
the week of January 25th. Because Management Team has increased funding to LAs during the
year (through the increase in per participants rate and the availability of training funds), there as
somewhat less NSA remaining to cover LA expenses that exceeded their grant. However, the
total amount of money going to LAs in FFY15 is approximately the same as in FFY14.
• Because state agency has not yet received the FFY16 budget from USDA, we are considering
only essential requests for increases in administrative funds and not making any decision about
the availability of training funds.
• Management Team will be looking at our funding “formula” to consider changes that might
more effectively support smaller agencies that lack “economies of scale”.
Federal ME: We received the letter from USDA summarizing our Federal ME, which Management Team
shared.
• Noteworthy acknowledgements: security training for state & local staff; state agency’s use of
WIC data to identify & address health disparities; our Food Finder App.; program integrity
activities in the area of vouchers used inappropriately; and our breastfeeding promotion and
support activities.
• Findings: processing standards (not meeting the 10/20 day processing standards and/or lacking
adequate documentation to verify that the standards are being met); data privacy (related to
instances of LAs providing WIC participant data to CT&C without obtaining the required Release
of Information); Separation of Duties (related to a more stringent interpretation of federal
regulations by USDA); protection/security of voucher stock.
• Recommendations: rights & responsibilities (ensuring participants have adequate time to read
the R & R before signing); local agency MEs (recommendations to the state staff regarding our
standards and tracking); goal-setting with participants in nutrition education.
e-WIC: Rick and Carol reiterated that MAXIMUS, our planning contractor, has recommended we use the
online (mag-stripe) technology (rather than off-line/CHIP), and has estimated that e-WIC will cost the
state ~$500,000 more per year (regardless of the technology used). Carol & Rick described the next
steps in the process: completing a number of required planning documents for USDA, and developing a
RFP for procuring the services of an e-WIC processor. As we did when we rolled out HuBERT, we will
convene a “LA clinic readiness” workgroup.
Vendor Rule Revision: Rick noted that the impetus for revising the vendor rules is to add necessary
provisions related to the implementation of e-WIC; however, in opening up the rules for review, other
parts of the vendor rules will be considered (e.g., changes to minimum stock). The process takes about
12-18 months, and involves getting input from many stakeholders, including stores, LAs, and others. LAs
will be notified through the Wednesday Update, of the opportunity to comment.
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April 25th Meeting - Proposed agenda:
• WIC budget update
• Everyday Hero – Report from Ad Hoc workgroup
• Federal ME Update: responses from MWRO, next steps
• E-WIC Update
• Update on training resources
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