$1.5M USDA grant will feed more DeKalb County families in need through food agency

DeKALB – DeKalb County Community Gardens (DCCG) has received approximately $1.5 million in USDA grant funding, enabling the agency to expand access to healthy and sustainably grown foods and address the root causes of hunger.

Labeled the Illinois Eats program, the grants were awarded to organizations such as DCCG in Illinois, officials announced at a Monday press conference. The program is a partnership with the Illinois Department of Agriculture and Illinois Department of Human Services, to allow initiatives where agencies may purchase food directly from socially-disadvantaged farmers at fair-market rate.

“We are very grateful to the Illinois Department of Human Services for awarding and giving a small pantry, such as ourselves, the opportunity to show that a smaller organization is able to fulfill the requirements of this grant,” Executive Director Heather Edwards said.

Agency officials on Monday took time to celebrate how the aid has benefitted area farmers and food pantries.

DeKalb County Community Gardens also operates a mobile food pantry that sets up at various locations around the county every month, offering food and fresh produce to anyone who needs it no questions asked. The nonprofit also operates its own Walnut Grove community farm in Kirkland, offers monthly subscription CSA boxes, and runs a community food hub in Genoa that gives out free warm meals.

Matt Klein, a farmer from Burlington, said the grant has been huge for his farm operation.

DCCG is working with 15 area farmers using aid provided under the USDA grant program.

“It’s been very good because we can grow a product and concentrate on the quality of the packaging of it instead of trying to battle with the wholesale market or other areas where it’s just price all the time,” Klein said. “We’re getting a quality product. We’ll be able to put the time into it.”

Liz Ezell of Salem Lutheran Church said the grant enables the food pantry to increase its produce output by eight to 10 times.

The Sycamore food pantry serves about 100 families each week, she said.

“[It’s] more than what we would have if we did not have this grant in terms of quantity,” Ezell said. “I mean, it’s changed the nature of what we’re able to offer families in terms of produce but also the dairy that we can’t afford to buy. We can’t afford to pay ourselves market price for all of this. We’re a small non-profit food pantry run out of the basement of a church. So, our budget does not allow for us to purchase at the prices that the grant allows for. Everything we get is over-and-above what we could offer our clients without this grant money or the help of the [DeKalb County] Community Gardens.”