Texas. Bureau of Nutrition Services

During the time period of these records, the Texas Department of Health administered the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) and the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) through its Bureau of Nutrition Services. In 2004, state health agencies were reorganized under the new Texas State Health and Human Services Commission (House Bill 2292, 78th Legislature, Regular Session, 2003). One of the Commission's divisions, the Texas Department of State Health Services, now oversees the Nutrition Services Section, which administers WIC and FMNP.

The Texas Department of Health was created in 1879 as the Texas Quarantine Department, charged primarily with isolating and preventing epidemic diseases such as smallpox, cholera, and typhoid fever. Over the next century, the department became the state's primary agency for public health planning, services, and regulation. It assumed the name Texas Department of Health in 1978. The agency was headed by a commissioner of health, who oversaw an assistant commissioner, an executive deputy commissioner, and four deputy commissioners. The deputy commissioners were in charge of numerous bureaus that were involved with community health and prevention, health care financing, public health sciences and quality, and administration. The Deputy Commissioner for Community Health and Prevention administered the Associateship for Community Health and Resources Development, which included the Bureau of Nutrition Services among its three bureaus.

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