When President Donald Trump signed the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” passed by Congress on July 4th, there was a sense that many of the cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) might not be felt right away.
That’s not the case for the University of Minnesota’s 60 county Extension educators charged with teaching about nutrition, health and financial literacy.
Buried in the BBB was a termination of SNAP-Ed staff positions, which are federally funded, by Sept. 30.
In Minnesota, SNAP now becomes largely the bastion of the often cash-strapped 87 county governments, based on how the state funds food stamp benefits and the program’s administration.
Letters went out this week to 60 educators across Minnesota’s mostly rural Extension network telling them their funding had dried up. The state would have received $9.7 million in funding for SNAP-Ed next year.
“Of all the things that could’ve been cut,” said Donna Anderson, SNAP-Ed health and wellness coordinator in north-central Minnesota’s Hubbard County. “And not just to me or to one family but to the whole community. There’s just such a ripple effect.”
Anderson has served as a SNAP educator since 2005, the last 10 years in and around the Park Rapids region, where she brings food lessons weekly to a men and fathers group.
Meetings often start with disc golf. Then the men might learn how to properly dice vegetables or cook meat. They talk about life as fathers or nutritional challenges in rural America.