A WIC First: New York To Cover Cholov Yisroel Baby Formula After Met Council Campaign
For the first time ever, frum families in New York will be able to use WIC to purchase Cholov Yisroelinfant formula.
The New York State Department of Health has confirmed that it will add the first Cholov Yisroel formula to the state’s WIC formulary later this month. The historic change is the culmination of a three-year campaign led by Met Council and a decision made under the leadership of Governor Kathy Hochul and State Health Commissioner Dr. James V. McDonald.
The change will benefit tens of thousands of frum families across New York, including families in Boro Park, Williamsburg, Flatbush, Crown Heights and Far Rockaway, as well as growing kehillos such as Monsey and Kiryas Joel. In the years ahead, as more children are born and new families enroll in WIC, this one fix will help generations of New Yorkers.
“This is a tremendous victory for frum families, and it happened because Governor Hochul’s administration listened and acted,” said David G. Greenfield, CEO of Met Council. “I especially want to thank State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald for taking this issue seriously and working with us to get it fixed. For years, mothers were told that WIC would help them buy formula for their babies, but not a single approved product was Cholov Yisroel. Met Council identified the problem, found the solution and kept pushing until New York fixed it.”
WIC, the federal nutrition program for women, infants and children, is administered by each state, with every state determining which infant formulas its program will cover. As of early 2026, New York’s formulary included more than 40 formulas. Many carried kosher certification. Not one was Cholov Yisroel.
The result was that a mother in Boro Park could qualify for WIC, walk into a grocery store with her benefits and still walk out empty-handed because not one formula on the list was permitted in her home.
The barrier came down to one-tenth of a milligram of iron.
Cholov Yisroel formulas already existed, but the products previously considered fell 0.1 milligrams short of the USDA’s minimum iron requirement. That tiny gap kept every Cholov Yisroel option off New York’s WIC list and left frum families without a single approved choice.
“No mother should have to choose between keeping Cholov Yisroel and feeding her baby,” Greenfield said. “This may look like one more item on a government list. For the families affected, it is life-changing. It means a benefit they were always entitled to will finally work for them.”
The issue first surfaced at the annual convening of Met Council’s Kosher and Halal Food Network in early 2023, when a member agency reported that WIC-eligible mothers were leaving stores without formula because nothing on the approved list met their religious requirements.
Met Council’s Food Programs and Policy teams spent the next three years working with the Department of Health, WIC advocates and formula manufacturers to find a solution.
In 2025, Hannah Lupien, Met Council’s Managing Director of Food Programs, identified a CholovYisroel formula that met the USDA’s iron standard. Met Council brought it directly to the state with a simple message: this product meets the federal requirements, so put it on the list.
Met Council was uniquely positioned to lead this fight. It operates the largest kosher food pantry network in America, feeding more than 350,000 people every year, and runs the largest public policy and advocacy operation in the Jewish community dedicated to fighting poverty.
That combination, feeding the community every day while fighting for it in Albany and Washington, is what turned one agency’s complaint into a statewide solution.
“This is what effective government looks like,” Greenfield said. “Governor Hochul and Commissioner McDonald heard that families were being left behind, reviewed the solution we brought them and took action. We are grateful to them and to the Department of Health team for making sure WIC finally works for every New York family.”
This victory builds on Met Council’s successful advocacy to create the USDA’s Kosher Foods in TEFAP webpage and increase the number of kosher products available through the federal emergency food program to 13.
Met Council will continue pressing local, state and federal agencies to remove barriers that keep families from fully using WIC, SNAP, school meals, emergency food assistance and other benefits for which they qualify.
“There are still too many government programs that work on paper but fail families in practice,” Greenfield said. “Our job is to find those gaps and keep pushing until they are fixed, so that every family receives every benefit they qualify for.”
