Smartphone App Helping Low-Income Moms In The Nation’s WIC Program

A mobile app called WIC EBTShopper is helping participants of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program to track their benefits and determine what groceries they can buy with the benefits remaining in their account.  EBTShopper has been available in Florida, W. Virginia and Kentucky for less than a year and has had over 100,000 downloads.

According to the company who created the app, JPMA, Inc., nearly 6,000 unique families use the app each day in those three states.  The Massachusetts WIC program will be supported in EBTShopper in February of 2015 followed by Colorado later in the year.

The WIC benefits require that families buy specific foods based on their determined nutritional needs.  The food "prescriptions" change with the changing situation of the mother and children, often making it difficult to track benefits and know with certainty which products can be purchased.

Sponsoring retailers enhance the service further, by providing a list of eligible items available for each category in their store.  Helping participants shop with certainty helps to avoid confusion, embarrassment and slow lines at the register.

There are plans for expansion in the works.  The company is working with WIC Agencies to provide additional services in the app such as peer counseling and recipes.  JPMA is working with agencies in other states to further expand coverage and with retailers to develop store-specific lists of eligible items.

The WIC provides nutritional foods, health care referrals and nutrition education for more than 8 million low income, nutritionally at risk women and children in the U.S.

Source: JPMA, Inc.