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Illinois distributes $4 million to strengthen local food system
The acting assistant director at the Illinois Department of Agriculture says the state’s local food system is receiving a boost.
Kristi Jones says nearly $4 million has been awarded through the Local Food Infrastructure Program.
“It needed to be a project where you were increasing storage, processing, packaging, or aggregation to distribute locally grown products, so there’s farms, there’s cooperatives, there’s nonprofits,” she says.
She tells Brownfield the program was developed through listening sessions that gathered input from specialty growers across the state.
“They really couldn’t get themselves to maybe the wholesale level without purchasing more infrastructure, and so this program comes along,” she says.
Jones says another $2 million dollars is allocated for the program in Fiscal Year ’27 with applications for the grants expected to open soon.
AUDIO: Kristi Jones – IDOA
| Grant Recipient | County | Grant Award Amount |
| Abundant Pastures | Richland | $38,182.27 |
| Academy for Global Citizenship Charter School | Cook | $61,600.00 |
| Ada S. McKinley Community Services, Inc. | Cook | $75,000.00 |
| AL RAAWI LLC | Jackson | $75,000.00 |
| Alto Vineyards, Ltd | Union | $75,000.00 |
| Angelic Organics Learning Center dba Farmers Rising | Boone | $71,661.17 |
| Arrow Farm Meats LLC | Stephenson | $75,000.00 |
| Beyond Hunger | Cook | $75,000.00 |
| Broadview Farm and Gardens LLC | McHenry | $45,000.00 |
| Carthage Quality Meats, LLC | Hancock | $56,250.00 |
| Chicago Chesed Fund | Cook | $127,500.00 |
| Cribelar Custom Processing LLC | Clark | $75,000.00 |
| Curtis Orchard LTD | Champaign | $75,000.00 |
| Danndee Flowers | Mercer | $72,600.00 |
| Dittmar Farms LLC | Jo Daviess | $21,200.00 |
| Dutch Valley Meats Inc | Douglas | $75,000.00 |
| Elawa Farm Foundation | Lake | $14,617.50 |
| Evanston Grows | Cook | $75,000.00 |
| Eastern Illinois Foodbank | Champaign | $75,000.00 |
| Flamm Orchards INC. | Union | $44,355.59 |
| Food for Greater Elgin, Inc. | Kane | $73,041.00 |
| Four Star Mushrooms LLC | Cook | $75,000.00 |
| Fritz Meat and Processing | Jersey | $57,721.50 |
| GGGY1 DBA Citadelle Green Mountain | Cook | $7,800.00 |
| Gravity Farms, LLC | Livingston | $8,710.28 |
| Grissom Family Orchard and Farm Market | Cumberland | $43,369.00 |
| Heartland Human Care Services | Cook | $59,558.00 |
| Hilltop Butcher Shoppe LLC | Shelby | $72,000.00 |
| Homewood-Flossmoor High School District #233 | Cook | $75,000.00 |
| Inspiration Corporation | Cook | $75,000.00 |
| Just Roots | Cook | $49,500.00 |
| Kakadoodle, LLC | Will | $57,093.00 |
| La Criolla, Inc. | Cook | $75,000.00 |
| Liberty Apple Orchard, Inc. | Madison | $1,424.21 |
| Liberty Prairie | Lake | $75,000.00 |
| Loaves & Fishes Community Pantry | DuPage | $75,000.00 |
| Lucy Jill Rendleman dba All Seasons Farm | Union | $64,757.25 |
| Mahoney Farms ll | Kankakee | $75,000.00 |
| Main Street Pastures | Clinton | $74,998.51 |
| NeighborSpace | Cook | $205,000.00 |
| Palatine Township | Cook | $75,000.00 |
| Panther Ridge Farms, LLC | Woodford | $42,141.36 |
| Paris Frozen Foods Inc. | Montgomery | $75,000.00 |
| Phoenix Bean LLC | Cook | $75,000.00 |
| Prairies Edge Garden LLC | McHenry | $1,959.00 |
| Prairiesburg Fields, Inc. (Paul Darrow 13) | Kane | $75,000.00 |
| Prairiesburg Fields, Inc. (Paul Darrow 27) | Kane | $62,543.40 |
| Rendleman Orchards Inc | Union | $60,286.02 |
| Riverside Foods | Cook | $52,446.00 |
| Roots & Vine Food Hub | Cook | $9,057.45 |
| Rustic Road Farm, LLC | Kane | $75,000.00 |
| Saradough | Will | $10,642.00 |
| Symphony Foods LLC | Cook | $75,000.00 |
| The FARMS of Illinois LLC | Morgan | $41,766.55 |
| The Supah Food Co LLC | Kendall/Will | $72,000.00 |
| The Witty Farmer, LLC – Jennifer Sauer | Scott | $38,781.99 |
| The Witty Farmer, LLC – Pittsfield | Pike | $25,000.00 |
| The Witty Farmer, LLC – Carrollton | Greene | $20,000.00 |
| Three Rivers Community Farm | Jersey | $11,900.97 |
| Triple M Farm Mariah’s Mums & More LLC | DeWitt | $26,465.00 |
| Triple S Farms Families LLC | Shelby | $26,000.00 |
| Vander Burgh Farms, LLC | Moultrie | $75,000.00 |
| Vincent Todd Jokisch | Cass | $32,468.00 |
| Zehr Farms LLC | Tazewell | $65,860.00 |
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