Abstract
This disclosure introduces WIC Victory Gardens, an innovation that expands the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program beyond food consumption into food production. By enabling a portion of WIC benefits to be redeemed for gardening inputs—including seeds, starter plants, raised-bed kits, or hydroponic systems—families can produce their own fruits and vegetables at home. This reframes WIC as a capacity-building program that addresses multiple national challenges simultaneously: improving dietary quality, reducing obesity and diabetes risk, lowering long-term healthcare costs, and increasing mental health and family resilience. Economically, $100 in seeds can yield up to $2,500 in produce, offering a far greater return on investment than equivalent store purchases. Strategically, distributed micro-farming reduces the agricultural load on centralized industrial systems and mitigates U.S. dependence on foreign agro-chemical imports, particularly from China. Documented here as prior art, this concept establishes a public-domain blueprint that cannot be privately patented or withheld, ensuring it remains available for policymakers, researchers, and citizens to advance for the public good.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Walker, Joseph JM, "WIC Victory Gardens: Integrating Micro-Farming into the Women, Infants, and Children Program to Expand Nutrition Access, Reduce Long-Term Costs, and Increase National Food Resilience", Technical Disclosure Commons, (October 03, 2025)
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/8676
Supporting Research
Copy of PAIR A DIMES, INC - FOR PUBLIC USE FOR ALL TIME.pdf (5193 kB)
Technical Drawings