OBBB funding cuts end ND’s main nutrition education program, leaving educators scrambling to fill the void

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – SNAP-Ed, North Dakota’s main nutrition education program, disappeared after the Big Beautiful Bill cut all its funding on Oct. 1. Some carry-forward funds allowed it to continue one month after that date. Before, it was in 15 counties, dozens of classrooms and mulitple food pantries across the state.Christina Masich, the former program coordinator for SNAP-Ed, is reminiscing on memories from the program. She made a PowerPoint for a fall conference to celebrate and commemorate thirty years of the program. The end of it hasn’t been easy for those involved.“You’re doing a lot of community-based work, you know, working with farmers’ markets and food pantries and a lot of other organizations throughout the community that we’re not going to have the same ties to them without this system,” said Masich. For years, SNAP-Ed offered nutrition education to people receiving SNAP or who are eligible for it through cooking classes, school presentations, partnerships with food pantries and community health initiatives. Masich has seen the impact first-hand.“Healthy eating is not always intuitive, especially when the more processed foods are the ones that are more affordable. And so the education that we provided really helped folks that were eligible for SNAP benefits,” said Masich.Masich once coordinated two nutrition-education programs serving families across the state. But with SNAP-Ed’s $1.1-million budget gone, EFNEP’s smaller $400-thousand program makes it difficult to fill the gap, especially since only a quarter of SNAP-Ed’s staff were able to move over.“We do have other staff throughout the state that does nutrition programming, and we will continue to do nutrition programming, but unfortunately, we can’t do more with less,” said Masich. Masich and her team are in the beginning stages of the full transition into the program and have just started developing online learning platforms. In spite of the drastic reduction in resources, Masich is determined to do what she can to provide nutrition education through EFNEP and make North Dakota as healthy as possible. The North Dakota congressional delegation emphasizes that EFNEP will continue, and argues that SNAP-ed is redundant funding. Copyright 2025 KFYR. All rights reserved. Read More