Open Door receives USDA grant to further WIC outreach

Open Door Family Medical Center, in partnership with The Hudson Center, the not-for-profit health information and technology company, and MVP, the not-for-profit health insurer, has been awarded a grant to increase participation in and access to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, commonly known as WIC.

This is one of just 36 projects around the country, and the only one in New York State, to be selected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). A total of $16 million in subgrants was awarded by the USDA through a cooperative agreement with the USDA Food and Nutrition Service and the Food Research & Action Center, with funding provided by the American Rescue Plan of 2021.

Open Door received an 18-month grant for $423,715 to establish a secure, HIPAA-compliant web-based referral application that will inform Medicaid enrollees of their eligibility for the WIC program and increase awareness, enrollment and retention. Historically, only about 50 percent of those in New York State who are eligible take advantage of the WIC program. WIC offers free nutrition education, referrals, breastfeeding support, counseling, and healthy foods to low-income families, where eligible pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, fathers, grandparents, foster/adoptive parents, caretakers, infants and children under the age of five learn to eat well and live active, healthy lives.

In New York, although Medicaid and WIC eligibility overlap, the programs are administered separately. The WIC-CIAO (Community Innovation and Outreach) project will allow Open Door to develop a system that will merge referral and eligibility data into one source to conduct outreach more effectively. The lessons learned are also expected to help other WIC agencies in New York and in other states that separate the two programs.

“We know there are many people enrolled in Medicaid who need the kind of support WIC provides but aren’t getting it simply because they don’t know about the program,” said Lindsay Farrell, president and CEO of Open Door. “The impact of reaching a large percentage of these people, who never before had access, is huge.”

According to Gina DeVito, WIC Program Director of Open Door, “We want to create a sustainable system for managing eligibility data and referrals in order to increase WIC enrollment and participation. It’s about building awareness and developing a system change. Right now, there is no structured referral system between WIC agencies and other public health programs such as Medicaid, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), and TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), and this disconnect is a major impediment to enrollment and participation.”

The USDA grants aim to expand partnerships with community organizations and use community-level data to develop and implement innovative WIC outreach efforts.

Open Door Family Medical Centers’ mission has remained consistent since it opened in 1972: to provide high-quality health care that is affordable, accessible and efficient. Today, the federally qualified health center cares for nearly 1,000 adults and children every day in Westchester and Putnam counties regardless of one’s ability to pay. Open Door currently operates health centers in Port Chester, Ossining, Sleepy Hollow, Mount Kisco, Brewster, and Mamaroneck, as well as nine school-based health centers and a comprehensive dental facility in Saugerties.