For two years, a pilot Illinois Farm to Food Bank program has paved a path to helping trim food waste and build food bank inventories with fresh, healthy food directly from farmers.
Now, legislation making the pilot program a permanent state program awaits Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature. House Bill 2879 establishes the Illinois Farm to Food Bank Program within the Department of Human Services (DHS) to help expand the availability of nutritious, locally grown, raised or processed foods for Illinois’ emergency food system.
The Farm to Food Bank pilot program has been administered by Feeding Illinois and was launched in 2021 with grant funding from USDA. The program connects food banks with Illinois farmers to establish a pipeline of fresh food for food pantries throughout the state. It also provides a secondary market for products that might be left in the field or trees, or blemished products.
Feeding Illinois Executive Director Stephen Ericson said he’s “excited and cautiously optimistic.”
“We have to continue advocating to the keep the dollars in the state budget, but after so many years to be able to realistically see the finish line is amazing,” he told FarmWeek. “Fingers crossed we break the tape this year and, once we do, there will be a collective sigh of relief and joy — at least until next year. We know our partners on this journey, such as Illinois Farm Bureau, are also excited, which makes our efforts and this achievement even more rewarding.”
While many farmers would prefer to donate excess food they’ve grown to food banks or local food pantries, oftentimes, the logistics and cost hinder such donations. The pilot program used USDA funding to help defray some of those costs by reimbursing farmers for their picking and pack-out (PPO) costs — any expense related to harvesting, packaging and transporting the food.
Through the multi-faceted approach, the Farm to Food Bank Program has been able to assist small and large farms across Illinois become more sustainable, said Raghela Scavuzzo, IFB local foods program manager.
“Many of our farms through our feasibility study stated they were facing lost revenue from surplus production or product standards. Moreover, they wanted to donate but often found barriers to connecting to donation sites,” Scavuzzo said. “Our farmers are overjoyed to participate in this project. They are recovering some lost revenue, reducing food waste and helping feed their communities.
“Farmers want to feed families and Farm to Food Bank provides more opportunity to do that,” Scavuzzo said. “There are more farms asking to participate in this program than we have had in funding through the pilot program. We hope a state-funded program creates long-term relationships with farms and food banks. Through this state program, farmers, food banks and communities have the ability to provide Illinois-grown foods to everyone.”
The program’s full potential impact on farmers may yet to be realized, Ericson said.
“Thus far, our Farm to Food Bank project has really only scratched the surface of the number of farmers that could potentially participate in and benefit from the program,” he said. “Regardless of how many, the impact for each of them participating should be positive on their bottom line.”
Initiative partners include Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Specialty Growers Association, Illinois Farmers Market Association, University of Illinois Extension and the Prairie Research Institute’s Illinois Sustainable Technology Center. While the pilot program has only been active for a couple growing seasons, the partners have been working on the project for five years.
During the pilot program’s first two years, nearly 2.5 million pounds of food was moved for $1.1 million.
The legislation recently passed by both the House and Senate would also provide grants to improve capacity of the emergency food system to allow for the proper transportation, storage or distribution of agricultural products to underserved areas. Targeted food will include fruits, vegetables, meat and poultry, dairy and eggs produced in Illinois, and must be surplus, seconds or market-grade quality levels and must be safe for consumption.
“Illinois neighbors struggling with food insecurity should have access to more fresh foods grown or raised in Illinois,” Ericson said. “Thanks to the local origin of the foods, the mix and hopefully the quality of products they typically receive from a food pantry or feeding program should also be enhanced.”
Under the legislation, the DHS secretary will name a nonprofit entity from Illinois’ emergency food system to administer the program and an advisory council will be created.
At the heart of the program is the relationships and partnerships between the ag sector and emergency food system. “The Farm to Food Bank program has laid the foundation for future opportunities in the local food system space through the building of relationships throughout our state’s ag industry and rural-to-urban communities,” Ericson said. “Development of these partnerships has required trust building and understanding among organizations and people, which have been beneficial — and will hopefully continue and expand going forward.”
Going forward and as funding allows, Ericson said the partners hope to expand the program to make it available to all interested Illinois farmers.
“However, we have been and will continue to be very careful about making commitments to partners that we can’t keep,” he added. “Ultimately, we want to broaden the categories of products acquired to include proteins, such as meat, dairy, eggs, etc., and diversify the variety to procure more culturally preferred foods. We also plan to be diligent in engaging with socially disadvantaged farmers to assure they have equitable knowledge of and access to the program.”