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The federal budget reconciliation bill passed over the summer completely eliminated the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Nutrition Education Program.

For the UA, this amounts to about $6 million in funds lost annually, Secretary of the Faculty Katie Zeiders said Monday at the first UA Faculty Senate meeting of the new academic year.

“Many (Cooperative) Extension funds relied on this funding to deliver nutrition education related to services across Arizona,� Zeiders said. “As a result of this, Cooperative Extension is now laying off 43 staff members, nearly 10% of its workforce and 50% of the Family, Consumer and Health Sciences workforce.�

SNAP-Ed, a under the U.S. Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, which the UA has delivered since 2004, will be eliminated starting Oct. 1.

At the UA, the program includes 70 faculty and staff split over 57 full-time equivalent positions, out of which 43 staff members received layoff notices in August with separations effective Sept. 30, said SNAP-Ed director Shea Cantu.

Zeiders said she and Cooperative Extension specialist Stephanie Grutzmacher have asked for support from UA Provost Patricia Prelock and Senior Vice President for Research Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, both of whom were present at Monday’s meeting, in a formal letter.

One key request is for “limited bridge funding, less than about $400,000, that would allow the university to retain a portion of the staff currently slated for layoffs,� Zeiders said.

Cantu told the Star the UA is redeploying staff where possible, using the separate Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program and other Cooperative Extension programs, and pursuing alternative funds through campus, state and local partners.

“We’ve been actively exploring a mix of near- and mid-term options: targeted state funding where available through ADHS (Arizona Department of Health Services), county support, philanthropy (community and corporate), foundation grants, health-system and health-plan partnerships, and competitive federal and state opportunities aligned to food access and active living,� Cantu wrote to the Star.

Grutzmacher, an associate professor in UA’s School of Nutritional Sciences, told the Star Tuesday that they are working hard to find new funding sources to continue some of the SNAP-Ed work, but it is simply not possible for them to replace funding as “consistent, long-term and sizable as SNAP-Ed funds were.�

“Federal cuts are squeezing our work and the work of our community partners all around the country,� she said. “Because SNAP-Ed cuts wiped $550 million nationwide, the few sources that remain viable to fund community health programs are going to be quickly depleted.�

Known as AZ Health Zone in Arizona, SNAP-Ed is “a cost-effective, evidence-based community nutrition program that reaches SNAP-eligible families in all U.S. states and territories,� Grutzmacher said at the Faculty Senate meeting.

It’s the largest Cooperative Extension Program explicitly serving low-income families and communities, it reaches over 1 million Arizona residents each year, and it’s one of the most tangible, active and enduring services of the UA’s land grant mission, she said.

UA Cooperative Extension employs about 400 staff members statewide in addition to 75 faculty.

Cooperative Extension is “best understood as the university’s educational and outreach system with offices, staff and faculty in each of our Arizona 15 counties and our five tribal nations, delivering research-based programming to hundreds of thousands of Arizonans each year,� Zeiders said.

Grutzmacher said UA’s SNAP-Ed program uses two broad approaches to improve healthy eating, physical activity and food security among low-income families, including children, older adults and people with disabilities.

One is that it provides hands-on nutrition education to help people afford and prepare healthy foods on their limited budgets. The second is that it works to create healthier communities through policies, systems and environmental changes.

Cantu said SNAP-Ed has been “a major prevention infrastructure that has supported school wellness, food pantry partnerships, gardens, and local policy and systems’ changes built over years of trust.�

“UA Cooperative Extension will continue community health work through other programs, but at a smaller scale initially without SNAP-Ed funds,� she said.

Grutzmacher said AZ Health Zone faculty and staff manage more than 400 long-standing community partnerships with organizations throughout the state, and work with schools, child care centers, community gardens, food pantries, farmers markets, libraries, parks, local businesses and more types of organizations towards chronic disease prevention.

“As a result of their efforts, SNAP-Ed programs produce many long-term health and economic benefits, including access to healthy, affordable foods; reducing hunger in families and communities; local spending that benefits farmers, small businesses and community organizations; health-care savings; increased earnings and increased life expectancy.�

Zeiders said all the SNAP-Ed people were highly trained professionals working in rural and underserved communities, including Willcox, Benson, Douglas, Springerville and across the Navajo Nation.

Grutzmacher said the loss is incalculable and includes reduction of food hardship, prevention of chronic disease, and expansive work with families and children over significant periods of time.

SNAP-Ed has been a statewide driver of nutrition education and healthy-living initiatives for low-income Arizonans, Cantu said.

The loss “likely weakens food access and health-promotion efforts in underserved areas unless other resources are brought to bear,� she said.