Rural California WIC participants tend to show a slightly lower propensity to redeem WIC-issued food instruments than urban California WIC participants do. In addition to possible food availability problems associated with rural locations, the presence or absence of cultural factors, especially foreign language backgrounds, may also help to explain this difference. Limited English-speaking WIC participants seem somewhat more likely to redeem their food vouchers than primarily English-speaking WIC participants do. This condition seems to be as prevalent in rural California areas as it is for the urban-dominated California WIC population as a whole. Nevertheless, WIC food instrument redemption rate analysis, together with geographic information systems, might be helpful in pinpointing areas around the country where physical food availability problems might exist.