Kane County — Diana, a SNAP‑Ed program staff member with University of Illinois Extension, told the Kane County Farm Bureau Board on Sept. 18 that federal SNAP‑Ed funding will end Sept. 30 and that the program is drawing on remaining, unspent dollars to continue limited work through 2025. "We are the education piece of the SNAP program," Christine Burns, SNAP‑Ed educator, said, describing cooking classes, public‑health campaigns and policy and systems work that SNAP‑Ed delivers locally.

The end of that federal grant, officials said, would halt in‑person food demonstrations, tastings and some classroom activities and could result in SNAP‑Ed staff losing their positions. Diana told the board the program has authority to scale back through 2025 using unspent funds but that without new funding "all of that work that we've done across our community for 30 plus years disappears."

Why it matters: SNAP‑Ed supports direct education, public‑health campaigns and technical assistance that partner with food pantries, schools and community gardens. Diana and Burns said the statewide program reaches more than 1,000,000 adult households and that 59% of adults exposed to SNAP‑Ed report taking healthier actions. In Kane County last year, SNAP‑Ed reported 4,062 direct‑education contacts, more than 85 policy, systems and environmental changes at partner sites and 4,032 pounds of donated produce to local partners.

Local projects and pantry operations: Burns described a set of community garden projects funded in part by a county grant process. At D300’s Carpentersville Middle School the program installed about a dozen raised beds; Burns said the school pantry serves about 200 people per week and teachers are using the garden for art, science and gardening clubs. Small gardens were established at the East Aurora Resiliency Center (about four beds), and Extension staff helped improve irrigation and operations at the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry, which the presenter said helps roughly 15,000 people per week.

A pantry representative who spoke to the board described how donations are packaged for families: "we try to give them the minimum is about 15 pounds, and we try to make it, like, a big thing of rice or pasta so it could make several meals, several canned things, as much fresh produce" as available. The representative said pantries also try to supply eggs, milk (fresh or shelf‑stable), 2–3 packages of meat and two frozen meals from a partner program when possible, and that refrigerated trucks and volunteer capacity are limiting factors for storing and distributing rescued produce.

Farm grants and training: Matt, a county staff member overseeing local grant programs, gave an update on two county efforts that support growers. He said the food‑and‑farm resiliency grant program has paid $669,363 to 19 eligible farmers to date, with a remaining balance of $121,795 to cover continuing payments and project management. The county’s urban agriculture innovative production grant supported a master urban farmer training program; the first cohort in 2024 had 12 trainees while the current cohort has five to six participants.

Alexis Barnes, University of Illinois Extension food and small farms educator, was highlighted for technical assistance to specialty‑crop and livestock growers, cover‑crop research and hosting field days; county staff said Extension is working to make her position permanent.

Other funding opportunities: Steve Arnold, manager of the Kane County Farm Bureau, noted Illinois Farm Bureau grant programs available to local partners: the Illinois Farm Bureau was described as making $30,000 available statewide for pollinator conservation grants and $200,000 for nutrient stewardship grants, and Arnold said county farm leaders had previously secured a $10,000 pollinator grant in 2022.

Board actions and next steps: Board members agreed to place reports on file and adjourned by unanimous voice vote. Diana and Burns asked local partners to identify alternative funding and program ideas; Burns noted a Oct. 16 internal deadline to submit program ideas for Illinois Farm Bureau funding.

The board and partners said they will pursue alternative funding, seek ways to increase refrigerated storage and volunteer capacity for food rescue, and explore options to sustain gardens and education if federal SNAP‑Ed funding does not return.

Ending: SNAP‑Ed staff and local partners described immediate steps to stretch remaining funds through 2025 and asked the board and community groups to help identify new funding by mid‑October to sustain programming that supports school gardens, pantries and small growers.