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URBANA -- A recent cut in President Donald Trump's "One Big, Beautiful Bill" will cause more than 200 Illinois Extension staffers across the state to lose their jobs and also affect the health and well-being of many more residents statewide, according to UI officials.
The University of Illinois College of ACES said Tuesday that it is ending the Extension-led "Eat.Move.Save." program due to the elimination of federal funding for SNAP-Education, which promotes nutrition education for individuals who qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
This will result in the loss of 217 staff members, which is more than a quarter of Extension's workforce.
"This program, through Extension, served about a million residents in the state of Illinois," said Germán Bollero, dean of the UI's College of Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences. "That is all across the state of Illinois. The brand that we were using for this program ... has been in place for (more than) 30 years. And these employees are part of communities all across the state of Illinois."
Extension and college leadership are still determining the specifics of how and when the program will shut down.
Bollero told The News-Gazette that officials are currently assessing how much funding is available and trying to provide "more of a gracious exit" for affected employees.
"What we do know is that as of October 1, funds for this program won't be available," he said. "Again, we're trying to do it with compassion and empathy for these people. These are the most incredible group of employees you could ever dream of."
"Eat.Move.Save." is one of the largest SNAP-Ed programs in the United States, college officials said.
"In this capacity, Extension acts as a hub to map agrifood systems in communities across the state, identify gaps, and develop programs, action plans, partnerships, nutrition education, and interventions based on system elements that drive food insecurity in each community," officials said.
The Illinois SNAP-Ed network encompasses a variety of partners, including schools, food pantries, charities, grocery stores, farmers, storage and processing facilities, transportation networks, public health departments, and state and county agencies.
"Eat.Move.Save." staff work with these network partners to help Illinois residents "access and prepare healthy food," stretch their budget for groceries and stay active.
A report by the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture called SNAP-Ed "ineffective and duplicative," claiming that it "has yielded no meaningful change in the nutrition or obesity of SNAP participants" and is a waste of $536 million in taxpayer dollars each year.
However, according to college officials, Illinois' program prevents over 5,000 cases of obesity and almost 600 cases of food insecurity each year.
Additionally, the nonprofit research organization Altarum estimated that every $1 spent on Illinois SNAP-Ed has a return of $5.36 to $9.54 in health-care savings and "long-term benefits," resulting in a $135 million return on an annual investment of $18 million.
"Clearly, these programs have been very effective at helping recipients of SNAP to make better and healthier choices in their food habits," Bollero said.
"Eat.Move.Save. is a rare program that simultaneously improves health, reduces healthcare costs, and strengthens communities," said Dr. Amy Christison, associate professor with the Department of Pediatrics at the UI College of Medicine in Peoria and an obesity medicine pediatrician at OSF Healthcare. "Extension's expertise, locally-based, locally-responsive staff, and effective 'systems' approach is a best-in-class example of the land-grant mission leveraging transformative impact on a statewide scale."
The program's work has included creating and maintaining Find Food IL, an interactive statewide directory of grocery stores, food pantries and meal sites that provide free food or accept SNAP/LINK and WIC benefits.
"Eat.Move.Save." also oversees Hunters Feeding Illinois and played a major role in the development of IL-EATS, a statewide initiative connecting farmers with hunger relief organizations that is also set to shut down in the coming year.
"The mission of our college is in food, agriculture," Bollero told The News-Gazette. "And for us, the research, education and extension in food nutrition, health continues to be central in what we do.
"And we'll continue to apply for grants and develop programs and try to find the funding to continue educating society, move society forward in the classroom, in extension programs, with our research in issues of nutrition and health."