A UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences program that provides free nutrition education to Floridians in low-income communities will be discontinued Sept. 30 after federal funding eliminations.
The Extension Family Nutrition Program, known as FNP, teaches children and teenagers how to make nutritious food choices through school programs, and it offers free training to locals interested in helping the cause.
FNP Associate Director Lynnette Jean said community members will lose a reliable source of fresh, healthy foods following the program’s elimination. Previously, children could take home produce grown at their schools to help supplement family meals.
“For many, it's a gap that will be felt at the dinner table,” she said.
The program is now communicating with staff and partners, which includes schools, childcare centers and other community organizations, to ensure they have the resources they need before FNP’s closure, she said.
FNP is a meaningful stepping stone for children to connect with where their food comes from and to foster “healthier, lifelong habits,” Jean added. Ample evidence showed the program’s effectiveness, and she hopes its legacy continues beyond its closure, she said.
“It's something that's really special, interconnected and woven into the community, and it is something that people are having a hard time processing and figuring out,” she said.
FNP was previously financed by The Florida Department of Children and Families, the state agency responsible for administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education, or SNAP-Ed.
The funding cuts came after the national “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed in Congress July 4. The act reduced SNAP funding by nearly $200 billion through 2034 and is expected to affect around 4 million Americans, according to an analysis published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The FNP program announced its closure on Facebook Sept. 2, thanking its partners and saying the mission behind the SNAP-Ed will remain strong.
“Our team is actively working with partners to review current projects and support a smooth wrap-up,” the post said.
IFAS, the UF institute that ran the program, published a blog Sept. 9 explaining SNAP funding cuts will take effect nationwide Oct. 1. The post said 76 of its employees from 31 counties will lose their jobs from the program’s closure, including nutrition educators and program managers.
FNP reached about 270,000 Florida students through 11,000 classes taught in 2024, according to the blog. Student fruit and vegetable consumption, along with physical activity levels, increased by the year’s end, based on surveys of participating 3rd through 12th graders.
Amanda Greenfield, leader of the garden club at Avalon Elementary School in Orlando, said she became involved with the FNP through the program’s free training. She said the program was a “huge” factor in mending the food insecurity problem in Orange County.
Avalon Elementary placed third out of 33 schools in the Orange County Public Schools Green School award in 2024, which recognizes schools for sustainability efforts in several fields, including improving health and well-being. Greenfield credits the UF partnership with the school’s success.
“Everything that we put in our application to place third was because of what they provided for us,” she said.
Greenfield added she feels the school district hasn’t considered how the FNP’s assistance will be replaced. She has applied for grants and reached out to private donors to keep the mission afloat, she said.
Funding cuts tend to target creative activities first, including art and music, Greenfield added, and she said people lose sight of the importance behind elementary extracurricular involvement.
“Elementary school and school is not just about math and reading,” she said. “It's where they build a foundational part of their life.”
Effects from those cuts are echoing across the state. Two hours north of Orlando, Amanda Demaria, the director of development and engagement at the Gainesville-based Partnership for Strong Families, said her organization will also struggle to train and educate families on nutrition without the FNP.
As a FNP partner organization, the Partnership for Strong Families provided child welfare resources in 13 Florida counties and collaborated with UF to supply families with nutrition classes.
Demaria said her organization is unsure what will happen to its nutrition programming. Options to provide its own FNP-like services are limited, she said, given the staff are not trained nutritionists.
Now, she said, the group is searching for a pro-bono partner to replace FNP.
“I think we will see, across the board, a real struggle in people with limited resources to be able to eat healthy without this program,” she said.
Contact Maria Arruda at marruda@alligator.org. Follow her on X at @mariazalfarruda.
Maria is the Fall 2025 student government reporter for the Alligator. She's a sophomore journalism and political science major at UF and hopes to work as a political correspondent one day! Maria loves to read, hang out with her friends, see her family and go to the gym in her spare time.
