Illinois Department of Agriculture

March 18, 2025 UPDATE

IDHS has been made aware that USDA has recently reversed its decision to cease reimbursements for IL-EATS (through the LFPA and LFPA+ programs). Grantees will be paid fully for January 2025 and the February 2025 invoices will be processed the week of March 17th. Please note, LFPA25 ($14.7M) continues to be terminated by the USDA. Thank you for your patience as we continue to receive multiple – and at times contradictory – updates that impact our grantees. We will continue to keep you apprised to any new developments.

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March 14, 2025 UPDATE 

Illinois was notified by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that the LFPA 25 agreement in the amount of $14.7 million has been terminated and that funding remains unavailable. USDA recently provided updated information indicating that the remaining fund balance from the original cooperative agreement (LFPA Plus) will be accessible to reimburse IL-EATS grantees with outstanding balances. We are currently in the process of evaluating the impact of this update given the contradictory information we have received during a short period of time.  

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GRANTS SUSPENDED

The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) is suspending the Local Food Purchase Assistance program (LFPA) and the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) program effective March 4, 2025, due to uncertainty surrounding federal funding. Recently, states were notified by USDA that LFPA and RFSI invoices are being processed only for costs incurred on or prior to Jan. 19, 2025. Reimbursement claims submitted for costs incurred after that date are being returned with no explanation or timeline for reimbursements to resume. More information will be shared as it becomes available. Please check back here for updates.