Exploring the use of nutrition professionals in the WIC workforce: a landscape policy analysis

Workforce shortages can challenge the delivery of public health service. To ensure access to high-impact services in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), there is interest in exploring expanded staffing models to support the delivery of nutrition services. We aimed to explore if or how paraprofessionals-staff without a nutrition/medical credential-are supporting the provision of WIC nutrition services in the U.S.

We conducted a landscape analysis of publicly available WIC Policy and Procedure Manuals (PPMs) across a stratified sample of 23 WIC state agencies. Job titles, qualification requirements, delegated responsibilities, and workforce development pathways were extracted and analyzed.

A total of 242 unique job titles were identified and classified into 14 standardized workforce categories. Considerable variation was observed across jurisdictions in job titles, qualification requirements, delegated responsibilities, and competency-based training pathways. The term "paraprofessional" appeared in only seven of 23 state agency PPMs (30.4%) and in one standardized job title. As of January 2026, more than one-third (37.4%) of the unique nutrition-related postings (n = 107) did not explicitly require a college degree in the reviewed policy documents, indicating potential opportunities for paraprofessional staffing. These roles appear to support participant enroll-ment, nutrition services, benefit issuance, referrals, and administrative functions. Several state agencies also present structured training pathways that enable staff to assume progressive nutrition-service responsibilities.

Our work found that, in addition to WIC breastfeeding peer counselors, paraprofessionals are engaged in nutrition-service roles in at least some WIC state agencies, although roles and qualifications vary substantially. Further research is needed to identify promising practices and to inform workforce-development strategies that strengthen workforce capacity while maintaining quality of care.