Texas Administrative Code › Title 25 - HEALTH SERVICES › Part 1 - DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES › Chapter 31 - NUTRITION SERVICES › Subchapter C - SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION PROGRAM FOR WOMEN, INFANTS, AND CHILDREN (WIC) › Section 31.21 - Definitions

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this
					 subchapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly
					 indicates otherwise.
(1) Adjunctively
				  income eligible--A determination that an applicant meets the income eligibility
				  requirements by virtue of being able to document his or her eligibility for
				  another program.
(2) Applicant--A
				  pregnant, breastfeeding or postpartum woman; infant; or child who is applying
				  to receive WIC Program benefits and includes individuals who are subsequently
				  applying after the expiration of a certification period.
(3) Arms-length transaction--A good faith
				  business transaction between parties, each acting voluntarily in his own
				  self-interest, without necessary advantage to the other in a manner consistent
				  with prevailing business practice.
(4) Breastfeeding--The practice of feeding a
				  mother's breastmilk to an infant on the average of at least once a
				  day.
(5) Breastfeeding woman--A
				  woman up to one year postpartum who is breastfeeding.
(6) Caretaker--An individual age 18 years or
				  older who is related to and has custodial responsibility for a WIC Program
				  participant during the majority of a participant's time awake each
				  day.
(7) Categorical
				  eligibility--Eligibility for WIC Program benefits based on a person's status as
				  a pregnant woman, breastfeeding woman, postpartum woman, infant, or
				  child.
(8) Certification--The
				  implementation of criteria and procedures to assess and document each
				  applicant's eligibility for the WIC Program.
(9) Child--A person who has had his or her
				  first birthday but has not yet had his or her fifth birthday.
(10) Competent professional authority--An
				  individual on the staff of the local agency authorized to determine nutritional
				  risk and prescribe supplemental foods.
(11) Current income--The most recent income
				  data and documentation available to the applicant; usually the income received
				  by the family in the month prior to application.
(12) Disqualification--The act of ending the
				  WIC Program participation of a participant, authorized food vendor, or
				  authorized local agency, whether as a punitive sanction or for administrative
				  reasons.
(13) Dual
				  participation--Simultaneous participation in the WIC Program through one or
				  more WIC clinics, or participation in the WIC Program and in the Commodity
				  Supplemental Food Program at the same time.
(14) Family--A group of related or
				  non-related individuals who are living together as one economic unit, except
				  that residents of a homeless facility or institution shall not be considered
				  members of a single family.
(15)
				  Federal fiscal year--The 12-month period beginning October 1 of any calendar
				  year and ending September 30 of the following calendar year.
(16) Food instrument--A voucher, check,
				  electronic benefits transfer card (EBT), coupon, or other document which is
				  used by a participant to obtain supplemental foods.
(17) Guardian--An individual legally
				  appointed and responsible to look after the affairs of a minor.
(18) Homeless facility--A facility which
				  provides meal service and is a supervised publicly or privately operated
				  shelter (including a welfare hotel, a congregate shelter, or a shelter for
				  victims of domestic violence) designated to provide temporary living
				  accommodation; an institution that provides a temporary residence for
				  individuals intended to be institutionalized; or a public or private place not
				  designated for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for
				  human beings.
(19) Homeless
				  individual--A woman, infant, or child who lacks a fixed and regular nighttime
				  residence; or whose primary nighttime residence is: a supervised publicly or
				  privately operated shelter (including a welfare hotel, a congregate shelter, or
				  a shelter for victims of domestic violence) designated to provide temporary
				  living accommodation; an institution that provides a temporary residence for
				  individuals intended to be institutionalized; a temporary accommodation in the
				  residence of another individual not exceeding 365 days; or a public or private
				  place not designated for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping
				  accommodation for human beings.
(20) Infant--A person under one year of
				  age.
(21) Income--Gross income
				  before deductions or net income after business deductions for farm or
				  self-employed individuals.
(22)
				  Individual with disabilities--A person who has a physical or mental impairment
				  that substantially limits one or more major life activities; a person who has a
				  history or record of such an impairment; or a person who is perceived by others
				  as having such an impairment. Major life activities include functions such as
				  caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing,
				  speaking, breathing, learning, and working.
(23) Instream migrant farmworker--A migrant
				  farmworker who follows a route or travels from state to state seeking
				  agricultural work and is not currently at his or her home base.
(24) Licensed wholesaler or distributor--A
				  business licensed in accordance with the Health and Safety Code, Chapter 431,
				  the Texas Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and Chapter 229 of this title (relating
				  to Food and Drug).
(25) Local
				  agency--An entity under contract to the State agency to provide WIC Program
				  nutrition services.
(26) Migrant
				  farmworker--An individual whose principle employment is in agriculture on a
				  seasonal basis, who has been so employed within the last 24 months, and who
				  establishes, for the purpose of such employment, a temporary abode.
(27) Minor--A person under 18 years of age
				  who is not and has not been married or who has not had the disabilities of
				  minority removed for general purposes.
(28) Newborn infant--An infant less than one
				  month of age.
(29) Nonprofit
				  agency--A private agency which is exempt from income tax under the Internal
				  Revenue Code of 1954, as amended.
(30) Nutrition education--A benefit offered
				  to WIC Program participants which consists of individual or group education
				  sessions and the provision of information and educational materials designed to
				  improve health status, achieve positive change in dietary habits, and emphasize
				  the relationships between nutrition and health, all in keeping with the
				  individual's personal, cultural, and socioeconomic preferences.
(31) Nutritional risk conditions--Detrimental
				  or abnormal nutritional conditions detectable by biochemical or anthropometric
				  measurements; other documented nutritionally-related medical conditions;
				  dietary deficiencies that impair or endanger health; conditions that directly
				  affect the nutritional health of a person; or conditions that predispose
				  persons to inadequate nutritional patterns or nutritionally-related medical
				  conditions, including, but not limited to, homelessness and migrancy.
(32) Nutritional risk priorities--A system of
				  priorities based on the participant's eligibility category (pregnant,
				  postpartum, breastfeeding, infant, or child) and specific nutritional risk
				  conditions with indices for identifying these conditions.
(33) Nutritional risk priority system--A
				  priority system which ranks participants according to the degree of need for
				  supplemental foods represented by the nutritional risk conditions which the
				  participant has. This system shall be used to prioritize new applicants and
				  participants for eligibility for services when a local agency has reached its
				  maximum participation level.
(34)
				  Parent--An individual's mother or father.
(35) Participant--A pregnant woman,
				  breastfeeding woman, postpartum woman, infant, or child who is receiving
				  supplemental foods or food instruments under the WIC Program, and the breastfed
				  infant of a participating breastfeeding woman.
(36) Postpartum woman--A woman up to six
				  months after termination of pregnancy.
(37) Poverty income guidelines--The poverty
				  income guidelines prescribed and adjusted annually by the United States
				  Department of Health and Human Services, effective July 1 of each
				  year.
(38) Pregnant woman--A woman
				  determined to have one or more embryos or fetuses in utero.
(39) Price region--One or more geographic
				  areas such as counties or zip codes with reasonably similar pricing of
				  WIC-authorized foods grouped together for establishing vendor comparison
				  groupings. Such areas may or may not be contiguous.
(40) Proxy--Any person 16 years of age or
				  older designated by a woman participant, or by a parent, guardian, or caretaker
				  of an infant or child participant, to obtain and transact food instruments or
				  to obtain supplemental foods on behalf of a participant. In certain
				  circumstances, a proxy may be appointed by the state agency to transact food
				  instruments for an infant, child, or participant under age 18 who is subject to
				  disqualification but who would be at nutritional risk if benefits were
				  terminated.
(41)
				  Regulations--United States Department of Agriculture regulations, 7 CFR Part
				  246.
(42) Separate economic unit--A
				  group of individuals who indicate that they have a source of income adequate to
				  sustain the unit and usually purchase and prepare food separately from other
				  individuals dwelling in the same household, or a group of individuals who
				  intend to purchase and prepare food separately from other individuals dwelling
				  in the same household after being certified as eligible to receive benefits
				  from the WIC Program.
(43) Shelf
				  price--The price normally charged all customers by a vendor for an item sold by
				  the vendor.
(44) State agency--The
				  Texas Department of Health in its role as administrator of the WIC
				  Program.
(45) Supplemental
				  foods--Those foods containing nutrients determined to be beneficial for
				  pregnant, breastfeeding, or postpartum women, infants, and children as
				  prescribed by the United States Secretary of Agriculture.
(46) United States Department of Agriculture
				  (USDA)--The federal agency which funds the WIC Program.
(47) Vendor account--A vendor approved by the
				  state agency with one or more outlets.
(48) Vendor agreement--The formal and legally
				  binding agreement between the Texas Department of Health and a vendor
				  authorized to accept and redeem WIC Program food instruments.
(49) Vendor band--A comparison group of WIC
				  Program vendors based on similar characteristics such as monthly WIC sales
				  volume for each account or outlet, store size, location, number of checkout
				  lanes, or store type.
(50) Vendor
				  competitive pricing--The process of comparing the cost of a standard WIC
				  Program food package for a woman, infant, or child at an outlet to the cost of
				  an average standard food package for the price region where the vendor is
				  located. Vendor accounts or outlets with similar characteristics are compared
				  within the same price region.
(51)
				  Vendor interactive training--A training session for vendors that includes a
				  contemporaneous opportunity for questions and answers.
(52) Vendor outlet--An individual store which
				  operates and transacts WIC food instruments at a fixed location recognized by
				  the U.S. postal system as an address, has an electric utility hook-up, is a
				  store structure situated on a cement or pier-and-beam foundation, is not used
				  simultaneously as a residence, has a minimum business area of 500 square feet,
				  has clearly identifying signage, and is walk-in accessible directly from the
				  street.
(53) Verbal abuse--The
				  verbal threat of physical abuse of local agency, state agency or vendor staff
				  by a participant or a parent, guardian, client-designated proxy, state
				  agency-appointed proxy, or caretaker of a participant. Rude, vulgar, or
				  generally abusive language is not verbal abuse.
(54) WIC-only store--A vendor outlet that
				  primarily transacts WIC food instruments or transacts WIC food instruments
				  totaling a sales volume greater than its Food Stamp Program sales volume or is
				  not authorized by the Food Stamp Program.
(55) WIC program--The Special Supplemental
				  Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) authorized by the
				  Child Nutrition Act of 1966, §17, as amended.
(56) WIC Vendor Profile Application--A form
				  which includes demographic, financial, and other descriptive information for
				  each vendor outlet.