Missouri will no longer receive money to administer a federal health education program that employed more than 200 people to teach nutrition programs throughout the state.
The program's funding was cut in President Trump's tax and spending bill passed by Congress earlier this month.
SNAP-Ed is a federal program that has provided funding to states for more than thirty years. States partner with schools and communities to teach people of all ages about proper nutrition, physical activity and how to effectively use money from federal welfare programs such as SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Jo Britt-Rankin is an MU Extension professor who oversaw the administrative side of Missouri's SNAP-Ed program. She says without SNAP-Ed or another funding source, there will be gaps in education across Missouri.
"We were in over 75% of the school districts in the state … and were actually a part of the school day," she said. "We were part of the school curriculum, and that will not be provided anymore."
Youth programs are geared toward exposing children to new, healthier food options.
"We often have parents come back to us and say 'little Johnny or little Susie now asks me to buy cucumbers or to buy raspberries because they were able to try those in their classroom and now they want to have those items at home,'" Britt-Rankin said.
There are also programs for adults that focus on preparing foods in healthy and budget-friendly ways.
"We could provide food demonstrations on items that might not be readily selected — dried beans, lentils, split peas that maybe folks don't know how to prepare," she said. "We actually saw the data where those items, once we demonstrated them, then they were taken [from food banks] more often, and they were incorporated into people's home diets. That was really important to us."
Missouri received more than $11 million for SNAP-Ed cash this year, according to Britt-Rankin. There are programs in every county and St. Louis.
"We reached over a million Missourians last year through direct education, indirect education, also with policy systems and environmental work," Britt-Rankin said.
Britt-Rankin is worried about what the cuts mean for the more than 220 people that were employed fully or partially by the program. She said most of them will likely lose their jobs.
"Many of these folks are in rural locations, I don't know what the job prospects look like," she said. "For sure, they're great educators, and so we want to help in the transition as much as we can, but I do worry about my staff. They were really, really strong, and this will be devastating for many people."
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