Peoria Standard

After a successful pilot program, State Rep. Jason Bunting (R-Springfield) said a new bill aims to make the Farm to Food Bank program a permanent offering in the state.

“Bill (would make) Farm to Food Bank program permanent in Illinois,” he said in a Facebook posting.

Bunting shared a link to a Farm Week Now article that details what the bill, which is awaiting Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature, would do.

The bill would establish the Farm to Food Bank program as a permanent offering within the Department of Human Services (DHS). 

"The Farm to Food Bank pilot program has been administered by Feeding Illinois and was launched in 2021 with grant funding from USDA,” the Farm Week Now report said. ‘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 outlines the priorities of the Farm to Food Bank pilot program in this way: "The Farm to Food Bank Program overarching goal is to build a long lasting, sustainable, state-funded program that would create a relationship of farms working directly with food banks to increase food access, economic dollars within the state, profitability for Illinois farmers, community revitalization and reduce food waste.” 

Feeding Illinois launched the “Farm to Food Bank Initiative” to make it easier for food banks to connect with farms to purchase products like fruits, vegetables, cheese, milk, meat, and eggs directly from farmers. The program undertook a survey and solicited feedback from farmers to find out what infrastructure improvements were necessary, what crops were available, which farms were interested, and what costs farmers paid to get products delivered. The program accepts seconds – imperfect produce that would not sell in a market location. 

House Bill 2879 was advanced as a way to help expand the availability of nutritious, locally grown, raised, or processed foods for Illinois' emergency food system.The bill lays out what the program is meant to do and articulates that it is subject to appropriations, but must dedicate no less than 75% of available funds to acquisition and distribution of food. 

The program is required by this bill to acquire and distribute agricultural products from farmers and aggregators to the state’s emergency food system, and that the program is to provide grants to help the emergency food system to increase capacity for storage, transportation or distribution of food products to underserved areas. It directs the program to focus on fruits, vegetables, meat and poultry, dairy, and eggs produced in Illinois. The food acquired in this program shall be “surplus, seconds, or market-grade quality levels” that is safe for consumption."