Great Plains Food Bank

Programs: Statewide food recovery and distribution: the great plains food bank is the only food bank in the state of north dakota and clay county, minn. We provide food assistance to more than 95,000 individuals each year as part of our mission to end hunger through community partnerships. During fy17, the great plains food bank distributed 12. 5 million pounds of food, providing nearly 10. 5 million meals to 95,521 hungry individuals, nearly half of those being children (36 percent) and seniors (12 percent). Our core business, and foundation of our day-to-day work, is to recover surplus shelf-stable and perishable food that was at one point going to waste, and get it into the hands of hungry children, seniors and working parents. The great plains food bank relies on four key partners to carry out our mission. Our 200+ food industry partners donate their surplus product that would otherwise go to waste. Our volunteer force, 5000+ strong shares their time helping us pack and prepare this food for statewide distribution. Our partner network of 215 food pantries, shelters and soup kitchens help us distribute this food in 110 communities across our service area. And our financial supporters ensure our programs have the resources needed to remain strong. Because of these partners, the great plains food bank can distribute food for more than three meals to people living with hunger for every dollar donated to our food distribution programs. Food safety is a top priority for the great plains food bank and we take great pride in having received a superior inspection rating from aib international during fy17.

usda commodity distribution programs: the great plains food bank operates two usda commodity programs for the state of north dakota. These programs include the emergency food assistance program (tefap), and the commodity supplemental food program (csfp - senior food pack program). Tefap provides commodity products (canned fruit, vegetables and juices, dry and shelf-stable milk, cheese, canned meats, peanut butter or dried beans, cereal, rice or pasta) to qualified emergency feeding programs such as soup kitchens, emergency shelters, and food pantries across the state. In fy17, the great plains food bank distributed 1,386,573 pounds of nutritious shelf-stable product to low-income individuals living with food insecurity. The senior food pack program is a commodity-based program that provides nutritionally-balanced, shelf-stable food packages to low-income seniors, which is also supplemented with perishable products provided by the great plains food bank. Seniors aged 60 and over with incomes of less than 130 percent of the federal poverty line are eligible for the program. The program helps seniors facing difficult decisions such as choosing between paying for food or medicine. The senior food pack program operated in 25 counties throughout the state of north dakota at 29 different pick-up locations. During fy17, the great plains food bank distributed 260,596 pounds of usda food products to more than 600 low-income seniors across the state.

child and rural hunger-relief programs: the great plains food bank operates a trio of programs aimed at eradicating childhood hunger. These programs include the backpack, youth summer meals and school pantry programs. The backpack program is the cornerstone of the great plains food bank suite of programs directly targeting childhood hunger. Each year, more than 33,000 kids qualify for and greatly rely on the free and reduced cost school lunch program. But on the weekends and during the summer months when the school lunch program is not available, many of those children struggle with not enough food to eat. The backpack program provides a backpack full of food to children on the weekend filled with food for five meals, helping to ensure children return to school monday morning healthy and ready to learn. During fy17, the great plains food bank provided a total of 109,590 backpacks filled with 383,565 pounds of food to hungry kids. The program operates in 126 schools in 25 counties across north dakota. Additionally, the school pantry program provides food for students through a food pantry placed inside schools, and the youth summer meals program provides lunch for children during the summer months when access to the school lunch program is not available. To address gaps in hunger-relief service and access to fresh produce and perishable product in rural communities, the great plains food bank operates a mobile food pantry and pop-up perishable food program. The mobile food pantry is a pantry on wheels that rolls into a community that doesn't operate a traditional food pantry. Food boxes packed at the great plains food bank distribution center are distributed off the back of our semi-trailers directly to children, seniors and families in need. In fy17, the mobile food pantry distributed 206,358 pounds of food for 3,110 households. The pop-up perishable food program fills a critical need for many rural seniors, families and children where access to fresh and nutritious food or their nearest food pantry is limited or not available. The program, which has seen tremendous growth in recent years, brings trucks full of fresh vegetables, meat, bakery items and other perishable foods directly into communities with high need. During fy17, the program held 42 distributions in 20 communities supplying a total of 457,993 pounds of food to 3,780 households.

community outreach programs: in partnership with the state of north dakota, the great plains food bank offers application assistance to individuals who may be eligible for the supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap). Snap outreach team members visit food shelves, soup kitchens, veterans service center, senior gathering sites, and low-income housing facilities to help people understand the program, and to break down barriers to participation from lack of awareness or challenges with complicated application forms. In fy17 we assisted 347 households with approved snap applications and re-certifications, helping them access an estimated 136,400 meals. Hunger is a complex problem that doesn't exist in a vacuum. When a person is hungry, they may also struggle with housing, employment, childcare, transportation and healthcare. In fy17, the great plains food bank took our next bold step toward our vision of a hunger-free north dakota and western minnesota by launching ending hunger 2. 0. It is a comprehensive effort that will bring long-term solutions aimed at the root causes of hunger through advocacy, research, and community-based solutions. Our first activities under this new initiative work at the intersection of hunger and health - a long term partnership with a major healthcare provider across the state.