Oregon's SNAP-Ed nutrition education program is gone, taking $9.5 million in annual federal funding and 70 jobs with it.

The Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) announced Thursday, Oct. 22 that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education program has closed after Congress eliminated its budget through HR1. The program had served about 28,000 people a year through classes and workshops and reached more than 100,000 through Food Hero community events statewide.

In Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties, the loss hits close to home. Dusti Linnell, an associate professor of practice with the OSU Extension Health Program, said the program trained hundreds of local teachers in nutrition education and paired students with area farms for cooking and tasting classes.

"It was also a way for students to get to know their local farmers," Linnell said, according to the ODHS announcement.

The program, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, ran about 1,500 nutrition and physical activity classes each year across Oregon. ODHS partnered with Oregon State University's College of Health and Extension Service to deliver them. OSU Extension has staff in every Oregon county.

Among the offerings: Grow This!, a campaign that mailed donated vegetable seeds to schools and residents. Adam Rea, an ODHS SNAP-Ed coordinator, said classrooms received growing kits with trays so students could grow food in their rooms. For many, it was the first time they had grown their own food.

A walking program called Walk With Ease targeted older adults. Lucy Huffman, another ODHS SNAP-Ed coordinator, highlighted the Food Hero website's kid-friendly recipe tastings, where children voted on favorites like apple bars and brown rice with corn and beans.

OSU Extension lost 70 employees because of the funding cut but said it will continue offering nutrition and physical activity programs. The Food Hero website, with more than 500 recipes, remains online. School nutrition programs will also continue using training materials and classroom kits that SNAP-Ed provided to teachers before the closure.

The closure comes as Oregon's broader SNAP program faces pressure. OPB reported in August that 126,000 fewer Oregonians were receiving SNAP benefits in June compared to the same month a year earlier. More than 646,000 people in the state received SNAP as of June, fueling Oregon's grocery stores, farmers and food economy with $1.6 billion annually, according to ODHS data cited by OPB. In the mid-Willamette Valley, the Marion Polk Food Share distributed 9 million pounds of food last year, OPB reported.

Heather Miles, ODHS SNAP and food programs manager, said the community organizations that delivered SNAP-Ed services are not disappearing. "What we created and the reach of the program will live beyond any one program doing this," Miles said in the state's announcement.

Allison Myers, associate dean for extension and engagement in OSU's College of Health, called the program's end "a tremendous loss" but said OSU remains committed. The Extension Service is 115 years old, she said. It just has to look different now.

Residents can find the program's recipe archive and gardening guides at foodhero.org.