Elimination of SNAP-Ed funding leaves food pantries across the state uncertain of how to fill funding gaps, as many of which are hoping to rely on private support to maintain current nutrition assistance programs. 

Federal funding for the Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Program, or SNAP-Ed, was slashed under federal funding cuts put into law by President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which he signed on July 4. 

SNAP-Ed funded many programs and grants to provide easier access to nutrition education and promote active lifestyles for low-income individuals. 

Nationally, $550 million in funds were set to be distributed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to states as a part of SNAP-Ed for fiscal year 2026, which began Oct. 1, with an estimated $3.1 million originally allocated for the state of Iowa. SNAP-Ed still technically exists, but all of its funding for fiscal year 2026 and beyond has been eliminated as a result of the reconciliation bill. 

In Iowa, SNAP-Ed programming was distributed largely through a partnership between Iowa Health and Human Services, or Iowa HHS, and the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Office. 

Iowa HHS administered programs such as Fresh Conversations, which aims to provide nutrition support to adults aged 60 and older, and the Physical Activity Access Project, which aims to improve walkability and bikeability in local Iowa communities. 

The ISU extension office provided the “Spend Smart. Eat Smart.” program, which includes recipes for meals that can be made on a budget. The information was used by food pantries across Johnson County, including the North Liberty Community Pantry and Coralville Community Food Pantry. 

Luke Elzinga, chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition, said Iowans did not have to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as a condition of benefitting from SNAP-Ed resources. SNAP provides federal food purchasing assistance to low-income individuals. 

The SNAP program faced its biggest budget cuts in program history from the same reconciliation bill.

Specialists talk healthy food access at local pantries 

Anne Miller, special projects coordinator at North Liberty pantry, distributes materials on nutrition, many of which are from the SNAP-Ed program, to families who use the pantry. 

She worked with a healthy food access specialist from the ISU extension office, who visited the pantry quarterly to adapt programming to the needs of the individual pantry and assess how SNAP-Ed can best help the community.

“We were hoping to have her teach a class at the pantry that was on saving money while grocery shopping and cooking healthy, basic meals, but her role was cut,” Miller said. “It’s a loss of another resource for people.”

The SNAP-Ed funded positions at ISU’s Extension and Outreach offices, including healthy food access specialists, have been eliminated effective Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2025, Elzinga said. 

RELATED: Federal food assistance faces biggest budget cut in program history

Elzinga works as policy and advocacy manager at Des Moines Area Religious Council, or DMARC, which operates a large food pantry network in the Des Moines area. At DMARC, healthy food access specialists would come and do classes for pantry volunteers so they can better inform community members how to make the best decision for their nutritional needs and budget. 

John Boller, executive director at the Coralville Food Pantry, said the specialist would pay specific attention during quarterly visits to proper labeling of foods and recipe creation at the Coralville pantry. 

Boller said volunteers and employees do not have enough time to provide the same in-depth nutrition information that was previously offered by a specialist through SNAP-Ed, and he anticipates families who visit the pantry will feel the change. 

“It’s frustrating because I’m hearing from a lot [of people] in our community and country who have a desire to ‘make America healthy again,’ and it seems like taking away nutrition education is not the way to get there,” Boller said. 

Garden grants through SNAP-Ed

Ryan Bobst, executive director of the North Liberty Community Food Pantry, wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan the North Liberty pantry had coordinated several nutrition program efforts with ISU extension office through SNAP-Ed, and the pantry had hopes of a greater expansion in program resources after moving locations in June.

New plans included the incorporation of more educational efforts into the garden space. 

“That will not be possible now. We will still have a garden, but we will lose access to some of the education and resources in this program [SNAP-Ed],” Bobst wrote in the email. 

Bobst said the pantry is left to figure out what to do on its own, but the ISU extension office agreed to leave resources provided through SNAP-Ed available on its website. 

Boller said the Coralville pantry has received grant funding for their garden which will cover multiple years through Growing Together Iowa, a SNAP-Ed program,including to establish raised bed gardens at their new facility, which opened in 2023. 

Boller said the elimination of SNAP-Ed leaves huge funding gaps individual pantries are expected to fill. 

He said the Coralville pantry has not had enough time to consider how to move forward, but Boller hopes they can find enough private support, in the form of donors, to maintain current programming, which includes nutrition education and
recipe cards. 

Elzinga said the future of many SNAP-Ed programs is uncertain, but the grants for community gardens funded through Growing Together Iowa have already been eliminated.