Summer 2023 Quarterly Vendor Call Minutes

Reauthorization

• Most Appendix B letters have been sent out as of July 31, 2023. There were some slight delays, but the remaining letters will be sent out this week.
• If you have not seen a reauthorization letter by August 10, 2023 reach out to DHS.WICVendor@Illinois.gov and we will verify that we have the correct contact information on file for the entity owner contact.
• All letters have been sent to the primary contact email address on file for the owner of each company. It is the responsibility of this person to communicate any changes in authorization to the individual stores.

IL WIC APL - Approved Foods & Produce Mapping

• If you are having issues with whole grain products not ringing up as WIC eligible, please first verify that the item matches all requirements on the Authorized Food List.
  • It is extremely important to note that only 16oz packages of whole grain products are WIC eligible, so, for example, a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread that is 20oz will NOT be WIC eligible because it does not meet the size requirements.
• If you have an item that you have reviewed and matches all the requirements of the authorized food list and the product is still not ringing up as WIC eligible, you may submit a request to have the product reviewed and added to the APL.
• To submit a product for review please follow the instructions on the IDHS: Illinois WIC Authorized Foods (state.il.us) webpage.
  • Once the product has been reviewed, nutrition staff will respond to you to let you know if the product is added or if it does not meet the requirements to be eligible.
  • The process to review products and add them to the APL can take quite a bit of time, so please understand that it may take a few weeks before you hear anything back once it has been submitted.
• For fresh produce items - if a vendor is integrated it is the requirement of the vendor to do the mapping of the fresh produce items, some stores the mapping is done at the store level and others at the corporate level.
  • We cannot tell you what the specific mapping process is with your store, but you can go to our website and there are general instructions on how to map produce located at IDHS: Mapping WIC Allowed Produce Items (state.il.us). All PLU's must be mapped to similar PLU's for that item (example: if the PLU for the peaches you have on hand are not currently on the APL you can map to another peach PLU on the APL or you may map to the generic PLU code 4469).

Contract Amendment

• The contract amendment that was communicated at the beginning of July 2023 went into effect August 1, 2023.
• This amendment will only affect vendors in the peer groups 1 - 3 Urban and 1 - 3 Rural. These are small stores that have between 1 - 3 cash registers that are WIC enabled.
• Vendors in these 2 peer groups are no longer authorized to sell specialty formula products that are in categories 31 - Exempt Infant Formulas and 41 - Medical Nutritional
• This amendment does NOT affect the ability to sell contract formula or WIC foods.

Communications

WIC Vendor Contacts:

Q & A

Open for questions from vendors on call.

We got an email said we are registered until Oct 2024, is that the reauthorization spoken about before?

Yes, that is your reauthorization form. Contracts are renewed annually.

Does bread have to be store brand bread?

No, there are many brands of bread on the APL. It must be 100% whole wheat, must be 16oz, and must have whole wheat flour as the first ingredient listed. Organic whole wheat breads are not WIC eligible.

Do we explain to customers what they can purchase and what they cannot? Is there a class for them?

Nutrition Education is provided to all participants by the local WIC Agency when benefits are issued. They are also given tools to use when shopping such as the Authorized Food List, their Family Shopping List, and how to use the BNFT App.

If a participant is struggling to understand what is WIC eligible, you can recommend that they reach back out to their WIC Agency for further guidance / clarification.

If you are seeing repeated similar issues with multiple participants, you can notify us at DHS.WICVendor@illinois.gov and we can then go back to work with the agency as maybe they need to adjust how they are providing certain education.

We also understand that participants are given a lot of information in their appointments and sometimes it is hard to remember everything that they were told. If you want to give some basic information to them that you think will help them, then you can do so but are not required.

Can you explain the generic PLU code for fresh produce again?

Full mapping is when you match apples to the PLU for apples on the WIC APL.

Partial mapping is when you take a PLU that you have for apples and map it to the generic fresh produce PLU 4469. This would allow the product to go through, but please note that this means that in the transaction report in WIC it will not show exactly what product was purchased.

Note that you CANNOT map frozen or canned fruits and vegetables. IL WIC maintains the APL for these items and if you have a product that is not going through as WIC eligible that is frozen or canned, please submit it to be reviewed, following the instructions on the website at IDHS: Illinois WIC Authorized Foods (state.il.us).

If it is a fresh produce item, if your store allows you to use the generic 4469 PLU, you can use that to help the participant purchase the fresh produce item, then immediately let management know what item was not mapped, so it can be mapped correctly for future clients. If your company does not allow this, ask management and corporate what work arounds they have to offer to assist participants.

Does the BNFT app check for the availability of foods they can buy or just WIC items in general?

Every item that is scanned will show as red / yellow / green.

• Red - the item is not a WIC eligible item for anyone using WIC benefits. They will need to use a different form of payment to pay for this item.
• Yellow - the item is WIC eligible but does not match the benefits currently available on the card. They will need to use a different form of payment to pay for this item.
  • This could be because the participant is not prescribed the item (e.g., they scanned a whole milk when their benefits are for low-fat milk), o
  • It could be because they don't have enough benefits left on the card to purchase the item (e.g., a 20oz box of cereal when they only have 12oz of cereal remaining on their card)
  • Green - the item is WIC eligible, and they should be able to purchase the item with the benefits.

How many WIC cards does each household get?

Most households are issued a single card for the whole household. However, in some situations, such as foster care, then each child is issued a card.

Can multiple WIC Cards be used in one transaction?

No, the participant would need to do separate transactions for each WIC card they wish to use and will need to separate food items out.

How can I find out more information on mapping?

We cannot tell you what the specific mapping process is with your store and recommend that you work with either your corporate office or your POS provider for specific information related to your system.

You can also go to our website and there are general instructions on how to map produce located at IDHS: Mapping WIC Allowed Produce Items (state.il.us).