Grocers across the state can now apply for grant funding following the Pritzker Administration and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) announcement of $3.5 million in new available grant funds as a part of the Illinois Grocery Initiative Equipment Upgrades Program championed by Senator Fowler. 

"A lot of these little grocery stores, their equipment like coolers and freezers are 60 years old. Their energy bills are through the roof," Fowler said. “We will see how this unfolds, and then there will be another phase. I have a county in my district, Gallatin County, and there’s not one single grocery store. A lot of these individuals have to go across state lines to buy their groceries.”

The Equipment Upgrades Program is the first program rolled out as part of the Illinois Grocery Initiative's multi-pronged efforts to combat food insecurity by supporting local grocers and combatting food deserts. Additional funding opportunities for new municipal and independent grocery stores will be announced to the public soon.

With rising energy costs, outdated equipment presents a major expense for small community grocers. Under the Equipment Upgrades Program, eligible grocers may be eligible to receive grants for the following equipment upgrades:

• Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment
• Refrigeration units and freezers
• Lighting systems
• Other systems providing significant energy savings

"It’s going to be interesting to see who, how and why some grocers are awarded and what that vetting process is going to be, $3.5 million is a lot of money, but statewide … it’s not,” said Fowler. “When you spread $3.5 million out throughout the state of Illinois, we’ll see how impactful it is.”

Qualified applicants can apply for grants between $25,000 to $250,000, with a 1:3 match required. Applications for this round of grants will be accepted until March 25, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. To view the NOFO and apply for the grant, please visit the DCEO website.

To help applicants prepare to apply for funding, DCEO will be holding a webinar at 10 a.m. on January 31 and a webinar at 2 p.m. on February 8. Interested parties are encouraged to reach out to CEO.GrantHelp@illinois.gov for application assistance.

Democratic leadership’s refusal to extend the popular Invest in Kids scholarship program is beginning to reverberate across the state. Recently, four private schools announced they would be closing their doors due in part to the loss of the Invest in Kids Scholarship program.

The four schools include Notre Dame Academy in Belleville, St. Odilo in Berwyn, St. Frances of Rome in Cicero, and St. Ann in Nashville.

The Invest in Kids scholarship fund was created as part of a bipartisan compromise that was part of a larger education funding reform law signed into law in 2017. The program was designed to help provide a choice to low-income families in struggling school districts by offering them a chance to find schools that better fit their children’s needs. The program encouraged donations to K-12 scholarships by offering a 75% Illinois income tax credit on the donations. Since the inception of the program in 2017, more than $308 million in private donations were made, providing more than 38,000 scholarships to help low-income K-12 students.

The original program was set to expire without legislative action at the end of 2023. Thousands of students and their families visited the Capitol throughout the year, pleading with legislators to extend the program so that they could continue the successes they were experiencing in their new schools.

Despite the bipartisan outpouring of support for the program, Democratic leadership refused to allow a vote on legislation to extend the program.

Senator Fowler supported legislation to save the program. He will continue to advocate for new legislation to restart the program to help students across the state receive the best possible education that fits their unique needs.

News deserts are a growing issue throughout much of the state. More than a third of Illinois’ 102 counties rely on a single source for their news. This was part of the findings from a state task force created to study the decline of local news in Illinois.

The Illinois Local Journalism Task Force, a panel made up of current and former journalists, along with legislators and other appointees, recently presented lawmakers with policy recommendations to prevent news deserts from further covering the state.

Since 2005, Illinois has lost 232 newspapers and 85% of its newspaper journalists (highest loss percentage in the country). The state task force also found that five Illinois Counties don’t have a local news source at all while four other counties are at risk of losing their single news source in the next five years. The report included potential ideas to fix this issue such as: using subscription, advertising and payroll tax credits, along with the possibility of state-funded journalism scholarships.

The full report is available at https://dceo.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dceo/events/local-journalism-task-force/local-journalism-task-force-final-report-january-2024.pdf

Senate Bill 1623 established the Illinois Underground Railroad Task Force last year to create a cohesive history of the Illinois portion of the Underground Railroad. This task force includes members from the Illinois State Historical Society, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and several lawmakers.

The group was created to develop a statewide plan to connect existing local projects and new projects to create a cohesive statewide history of the Underground Railroad in Illinois, while developing new educational and tourism opportunities for this State.

A report on task force progress will be delivered to the Governor and General Assembly by July 1.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture is working to give the middle sections of the food supply chain a boost, designating $6.4 million to go to Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) grants.

This allocation will go toward the post-harvest, pre-retail sale level of the food supply chain. Examples of the mid-level food supply chain are the processing, manufacturing, storing, and transporting of all non-meat food. The grants fund the cost of equipment or the expansion of capacity and infrastructure.

These grants will help the future of farming by giving assistance to smaller farms and ranches, new and beginning farmers and ranchers, underserved producers, veteran producers, and underserved communities. These grants are the product of listening sessions with more than 300 distributors, growers, and producers on how to create a better food system for Illinois. Applications for these grants will be available from January 22 to March 15. For more information, visit https://agr.illinois.gov/assistance/illinoisfarmprograms/resilient-food-systems-infrastructure-program.html.