Under an interim final rule issued in December 2007, participants in USDA's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) will, among other changes, begin to receive more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in the 'WIC food packages' that are provided to the estimated 8 million low-income women, infants, and young children who annually participate in that $6.2 billion program.
For Patricia Daniels, this was the culmination of an effort which she has helped to spearhead for years. Daniels is the Director of the Supplemental Food Programs Division in the Food and Nutrition Service. In that position, where she has served since 1999, she is also Director of the FNS-administered WIC Program, and is the first registered dietitian to do so since WIC became a nationwide program in 1974.
"It took us 10 years to improve the WIC food packages to align them with the federal government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans," she explained. "Some of the complications in making that happen included the fact that it costs more money to add those three items to the package, and this is a discretionary nutrition assistance program here at FNS, not a mandatory one."
Daniels noted that this proposed change to the WIC food packages generated an estimated 48,000 comments to FNS. She said that was the highest number of comments received about any proposed regulation change in FNS, and is thought to be the second highest number of comments, to a proposed regulation change, in the history of USDA.
"But," she affirmed, "I think that the changes in the WIC food packages are the next step in a natural progression in FNS. We're putting far more emphasis on nutrition assistance, instead of just food assistance."
Indeed, one might look at Daniels' 33-year work history at FNS and conclude that the 'n' in 'Daniels' stands for 'nutrition.' She concentrated on nutrition while earning B.S. and M.S. degrees at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee and the University of Maryland in College Park, respectively. Then, after teaching general science to fifth graders for a year in Sumter, S.C.--where she was born and grew up--she worked as a research technician for a pulp and paper company in Columbia, Md., for two years. She analyzed soils, looking for the best nutrients to determine where the company could grow the best pine trees for use in paper production. "You could say," she quipped, "that I focused on nutrition for the trees."
In 1975 she joined FNS's [then] Nutrition and Technical Services Division as a nutrition education specialist. In that role she worked with all of the agency's domestic nutrition assistance programs, including the Food Stamp Program, the Child Nutrition Programs, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, and the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR). As her career developed, she moved from providing technical assistance to the 'cooperators' of FNS's nutrition assistance programs to focusing on the policies behind those programs.
Along the way she also spearheaded efforts to develop educational materials for low-literate audiences participating in FNS programs. In addition, she introduced cultural competency training workshops for federal, state, and local nutrition assistance program 'cooperators.' "Those cooperators are the grassroots people that FNS relies on to effectively and efficiently get our programs to our target audiences," she pointed out. "I wanted to make sure that, through our FNS 'cultural competency training' workshops, our cooperators were better able to implement culturally appropriate services to the clients of our FNS programs."
Last Book Read:"A Thousand Splendid Suns," by Khaled Hosseini.
Last Movie Seen:"The Bucket List."
Hobbies: "Gardening and reading. I belong to the 'Sunday Brunch Book Club' which meets every other month in restaurants all over the Washington, DC metropolitan area."
Favorite Weekend Breakfast: "I like grits--but it's any breakfast where I have family members present."
Something I Don't Want People To Know About Me: "As an Aging Boomer, I've been developing a case of 'CRS'--which I'll translate politely for you as 'Can't Remember Stuff'."
Priorities In The Months Ahead: "In order to get the WIC food package changes ready for their full implementation by October 2009, we're focusing on many details, including making sure that participating grocery stores are stocking the newly eligible food items, revising the WIC checks, and updating our nutrition education messages to focus on these changes."
