A federal fund has been cut that provided Illinois schools and childcare centers with healthy foods from local farms and suppliers.
The Trump administration on March 7 canceled $26.3 million in grant funds that would have supported Illinois schools, childcare sites, and farmers through 2028, according to a news release from the Illinois State Board of Education.
Here’s what you need to know.
How many people will be affected?
The agreement would have supported up to 4,017 public and nonpublic schools and 1,250 childcare sites in purchasing “high-quality, locally grown, fresh food from Illinois farmers to use in meals and snacks,” ISBE said.
The existing grant supported approximately 2,100 schools serving over 1 million students in purchasing locally grown food from 138 different farms and ranches across the state.
When will the funding stop?
$7.4 million from a pre-existing grant will be available to grantees through the end of January 2026, ISBE said.
Other states, too, were notified recently that the USDA had cut the funding for the program for 2025, according to USA Today.
What is the program?
Local Food for Schools and Local Food for Schools and Child Care are two different local food funding opportunities. LFS was set to conclude on Jan. 31, 2026, and then LFSCC would have been able to start if it had not been terminated, a spokesperson for ISBE wrote in an email.
That $26.3 million that was canceled would have broken down to approximately $17.8 million for schools over the three years plus $8.5 million for childcare over the three years.
The program sought to strengthen the food system for schools and childcare institutions by helping to build a “fair, competitive, and resilient local food chain, and expand local and regional markets with an emphasis on purchasing from historically underserved producers and processors,” the USDA website says on the program’s page.More: Egg prices have climbed amidst an avian flu outbreak. Here’s what it means for Illinois
What else has USDA cut?
Similarly, the Illinois Department of Agriculture announced on March 4 the end for two grant programs that use federal funds to buy food from growers and producers and distribute it to foodbanks, as well as a program that offers better market opportunities and new streams of revenue to small and mid-sized agricultural producers.
Altogether, the USDA has cut over $1 billion nationwide in funding in recent months from initiatives that look to help schools and food banks purchase from local farmers.More: Nearly $2B has not been paid to Illinois by feds, Gov. Pritzker and others say
How long has this grant existed?
ISBE began participating in the LFS program in August of 2023.
How is ISBE involved?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a termination notice to ISBE for the grant program.
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