Illinois local food grants buy cold storage and delivery trucks for farms, food banks and urban growers
The state Department of Agriculture announced the awards on July 27. Its list now shows 61 grants worth about $3.55 million, the largest $205,000 for a Chicago land trust, and the new state budget adds $2 million for another round.
Springfield. Food banks, food pantries, urban farms and a Chicago land trust are among the nonprofits sharing Illinois' latest Local Food Infrastructure Grants, which pay for the cold storage, processing equipment and refrigerated vehicles that move food grown in the state from farm to consumer.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture announced the awards on July 27, saying it was distributing nearly $4 million, two years of funding from appropriations of $2 million each in fiscal 2025 and 2026. The list in that announcement named 64 grants worth about $3.73 million. The list now on the department's program page shows 61 grants worth about $3.55 million. Three grants from July no longer appear, and neither page says why.
Grants range from $1,424 for an apple orchard's air conditioner, pallet forks and scales to $205,000 for NeighborSpace, a Chicago urban land trust, which with the Chicago Food Policy Action Council will install solar-powered cold storage and market and distribution infrastructure for six community farms on the city's South and West Sides. Sixteen of the 61 grants went to Cook County.
Nonprofits among the recipients
Farms, cooperatives, processors, food businesses and food hubs with fewer than 50 employees could apply, and so could nonprofits and local governments.
The Chicago Chesed Fund received $127,500 for a joint project with the Chicago Mezuzah and Mitzvah Campaign to buy refrigerated trucks, which the two groups say will help them buy from local farms and keep up meal deliveries to hospital patients, seniors and others. The Eastern Illinois Foodbank received $75,000 to replace the refrigeration system of its walk-in freezer and add freezer racks. Food for Greater Elgin, which calls itself the largest food pantry in Kane County, received $73,041 for a refrigerated truck and a refitted van. Angelic Organics Learning Center, which does business as Farmers Rising, received $71,661 for honey and poultry processing units and a dehydrator that farmers can use for a small fee.
The next round
The fiscal 2027 budget includes another $2 million for the program, the department said. Its program page puts the money available this year at $1.8 million and gives no application date yet.
Individual projects may receive $1,000 to $75,000 and collaborative projects $1,000 to $250,000, paid to the lead applicant. Recipients must match a quarter of the grant unless the project is high need, meaning it fills a critical gap in a community's food infrastructure or mainly serves underserved farmers and communities. A project funded in one cycle cannot apply again in the next.
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