TL;DR: Congress ended required federal funding for SNAP-Ed with the fiscal year 2025 grant, and states are now closing out or spending down their last awards under closeout rules.

The newest verified federal step is an April 20, 2026 information-collection notice that renews SNAP-Ed plan-and-report paperwork so states can file final annual reports before program closeout, with public comments due May 20, 2026.

What changed for SNAP-Ed

On July 4, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed Public Law 119-21, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, according to the Food and Nutrition Service document titled Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program (SNAP-Ed) Questions and Answers.

Section 10107 of that law amends Section 28(d)(1)(F) of the Food and Nutrition Act, as amended, by ending required funding of SNAP-Ed with the fiscal year 2025 grant allocation, according to that same Food and Nutrition Service Questions and Answers memorandum dated August 13, 2025.

The practical effect is that there is no new required SNAP-Ed grant after FY 2025. The Food and Nutrition Service asked state agencies to notify it whether they will close the FY 2025 grant and return unspent funds or keep operating temporarily on FY 2025 funds into FY 2026.

The August 13, 2025 memorandum was signed by Ronald K. Ward, Acting Associate Administrator for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the Food and Nutrition Service. It states that the agency was responding to questions received to date and would release additional question-and-answer documents in the future as needed.

States were directed to contact their respective Food and Nutrition Service regional offices with questions or requests for technical assistance.

How large the wider SNAP law is

The end of required SNAP-Ed funding is one piece of a broader nutrition title that reduces federal SNAP spending, according to the Congressional Research Service report titled Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Related Nutrition Programs in P.L. 119-21: An Overview.

That report, product number R48552 and updated August 15, 2025, says nutrition provisions in the FY2025 budget reconciliation law, sometimes referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, are estimated to reduce federal spending on SNAP. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the nutrition subtitle would reduce federal spending by almost $187 billion over 10 years covering FY2025-FY2034, according to the Congressional Research Service overview.

The same overview says the new law significantly changes how SNAP benefits, administrative costs, and nutrition education costs are funded. It lists eight provisions that the Congressional Budget Office expects would cause less federal spending than under prior law.

The largest estimated savings come from benefit-related changes, because benefits have historically been about 95% of federal spending on the program, according to the Congressional Research Service overview. Those changes include moving from 100% federally funded benefits in all states to a required state cost share for states with error rates at or greater than 5%, changing treatment of energy assistance and internet costs in benefit calculations, expanding work-requirement age rules, changing eligibility for additional groups of noncitizens, and limiting authority to increase the Thrifty Food Plan.

Other savings come from administrative and grant changes, including increasing the state cost-share for SNAP administrative costs from 50% to 75% and ending mandatory funding for the Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program, known as SNAP-Ed, according to the Congressional Research Service overview.

The report cautions that a provision estimated to reduce or increase federal spending will not necessarily affect all states or households in the same way, because effects depend on the specific policy and federal and state implementation.

Closeout timeline states must follow

The Food and Nutrition Service Questions and Answers memorandum sets two paths for unspent FY 2025 funds.

A state is not required to obligate and spend remaining FY 2025 funds in FY 2026. It may instead notify the Food and Nutrition Service of its intent to close the FY 2025 grant and return unexpended funding, according to the Food and Nutrition Service Questions and Answers.

A state that wants to keep spending FY 2025 funds in FY 2026 must submit a plan by August 15, 2025, or no later than August 31, 2025, if an extension is requested and approved. That plan should include an intent to expend funds by September 30, 2026.

States that continue into FY 2026 should expend all SNAP-Ed funds by September 30, 2026, and return any unexpended grant funds by that date, according to the Food and Nutrition Service Questions and Answers.

For states that choose to end programming promptly, the memorandum encourages written termination notice by August 15, 2025, and return of unexpended FY 2025 funds by December 1, 2025.

Termination notice follows 2 CFR 200.340(a)(3). A state agency may terminate the federal award by sending written notification stating the reason or reasons for termination, the effective date, and the dollar amount of unexpended funding, according to the Food and Nutrition Service Questions and Answers.

Plans and annual reports still required

Even during closeout, reporting obligations continue for any state that delivered services.

A state agency that delivered SNAP-Ed services in FY 2025 must submit a SNAP-Ed annual report under Section 28(c)(8) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, as amended. Those FY 2025 reports are due January 31, 2026, under 7 CFR 272.2(d)(2)(xiii), according to the Food and Nutrition Service Questions and Answers.

States that plan to spend FY 2025 funding in FY 2026 must submit a FY 2026 annual plan and budget under Section 28(c)(2) of the Act, as amended, according to the same Food and Nutrition Service Questions and Answers.

A state agency that delivered SNAP-Ed services in FY 2026 must submit an annual report under Section 28(c)(8). Those FY 2026 reports are due January 31, 2027, under 7 CFR 272.2(d)(2)(xiii), according to the Food and Nutrition Service Questions and Answers.

Requests to extend the August 15, 2025 plan due date must go through the SNAP-Ed Regional Coordinator. Coordinators may approve extensions up to August 31, 2025, according to the Food and Nutrition Service Questions and Answers.

The April 20, 2026 Federal Register notice titled Comment Request: SNAP-Ed State Plan and Report System explains why paperwork is being renewed despite the funding end. It states that Section 28(c)(2) requires states seeking funds to submit a Nutrition Education Plan by August 15 each year and Section 28(c)(8) requires states receiving grant funds to submit an annual report by January 31 each year.

That notice states the collection is being renewed for states to submit final annual reports prior to program closeout. State agencies, with support from contracted implementing partners including other state, local, and Tribal agencies and not-for-profit institutions, submit Form FNS-925B for the plan and Form FNS-925A for the annual report through N-PEARS.

The notice states that N-PEARS, the electronic State Plan and Annual Report System, launched in fiscal year 2023 to collect consistent data across states, support aggregation and evaluation, measure projects, and account for allowable administrative costs. Comments received by May 20, 2026 will be considered, according to the Food and Nutrition Administration notice.

What funding level was on the table before the cut

Before enactment, states had been planning around a continued program. A May 30, 2025 Food and Nutrition Service memorandum on Fiscal Year 2026 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education Estimated Allocations shared estimated FY 2026 allocations to help agencies prepare plans by August 15, 2025.

Based on current estimates at that time, the agency projected the FY 2026 national SNAP-Ed allocation at $550,000,000 for planning purposes only, noting that actual amounts would differ as additional data were collected, according to that May 30, 2025 memorandum from Director Rachel Frisk.

The memorandum said final allocations were expected in summer 2025 to reflect changes in SNAP participation and the June 2025 Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers under the statutory formula in Section 28(d)(1)(F). It also stated that allocations are subject to availability of federal funds.

That planning figure did not survive the July 4, 2025 enactment, which ended required funding with the FY 2025 allocation, according to the later Food and Nutrition Service Questions and Answers.

What the cutoff meant in communities

The national policy change translated quickly into local program endings, according to the Reuters article titled States to end nutrition education programs after Trump cuts, published September 30, 2025.

Reuters reported that states would end SNAP-Ed programs after September 30 and described the cuts as the first to nutrition programs from the spending bill. The article described the affected effort as a 30-year-old program that reached nearly 2 million people in 2022.

The article opened at a San Francisco senior living community where a nonprofit, Leah's Pantry, hosted an hour-long dance class. Reuters reported that Leah's Pantry has run nutrition and health programs around the city since 2006.

The example illustrates the type of community-level nutrition and physical-activity programming delivered with SNAP-Ed support: group classes for older adults combining movement, social connection, and practical lessons about healthier daily habits.

For consumers, the immediate consequence is fewer locally delivered classes, workshops, and community obesity-prevention activities where state and partner agencies close grants rather than spend down into FY 2026.

Money rules during spend-down

States cannot shift leftover SNAP-Ed costs to regular SNAP administration funds.

SNAP-Ed services are not eligible for state administrative expenditure reimbursement, according to the Food and Nutrition Service Questions and Answers. Section 28(d)(3)(B) excludes costs of nutrition education and obesity prevention above SNAP-Ed grant funds from reimbursement under Section 16(a) administrative cost-sharing.

On whether appropriations could restore FY 2026 funding, the memorandum states that the Food and Nutrition Service monitors congressional appropriations actions and will provide additional information to states if needed.

What to watch next

The near-term federal task is administrative closeout, not expansion. State plans due in August 2025 determine which states spend into FY 2026, annual reports due January 31, 2026 and January 31, 2027 document services delivered in FY 2025 and FY 2026, and unspent funds are to be returned by September 30, 2026 for states that continue or by December 1, 2025 for states that terminate promptly, according to the Food and Nutrition Service Questions and Answers.

The April 20, 2026 notice adds a final paperwork step, asking for comment by May 20, 2026 on renewed reporting instruments used for final reports, program evaluation, compliance review, and technical assistance, according to the Food and Nutrition Administration notice titled Comment Request: SNAP-Ed State Plan and Report System.