PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Feeding South Dakota is in an unexpected financial bind and is asking state lawmakers to help the non-profit get through it.

The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Appropriations has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday morning on a $5 million request.

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Feeding South Dakota CEO Lori Dykstra said the organization isn’t seeking an ongoing commitment.

“This is one-time funding. We’re asking sort of a reset. So we can’t fundraise our way out of the hole that has been created by the decrease in resources and the rise in need. We’ve seen the highest need that we’ve ever seen in South Dakota in the last few years.”

Democratic Rep. Erik Muckey of Sioux Falls is the prime sponsor of House Bill 1147. Its lead Senate sponsor is Republican Paul Miskimcins of Mitchell. The legislation calls for appropriating $5 million from the state government’s general fund to the state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

The department, in turn, would “provide a single grant to a South Dakota-based statewide food distribution organization which distributes food to all counties of the state for the purchase and distribution of food and the subsequent distribution to food pantries throughout this state.”

The legislation says the department must require the grantee to utilize at least $1,500,000 of the
grant to purchase food from local farmers and other eligible producers in South Dakota, with the department providing guidance regarding the qualifications of farmers and producers.

The department would also be required by November 1 of each year to provide an annual report to the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee until the group receiving the grant has spent the entire $5 million. “The report must include the amount of the grant spent each fiscal year, the type and amount of food purchased with the grant, and the organizations to which the food was
distributed,” the legislation says.

KELOLAND News asked why the state funding is necessary.

“House Bill 1147 would help us replenish some of the food that we lost through the last year and a half with our federal program cutbacks, as well as the LFPA, the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, which supported local producers. We are asking to replace with the $1.5 million to help purchase that food from those small farmers,” Dykstra said.

The shortfall developed last year, after U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

“So at the federal level, last March, there was an executive order that cut back some different, rolled back some different food programs. So it cut back TEFAP, the Emergency Food Assistance Program, by about 1.7 million pounds a year for us. For perspective, we put out the door about 13 to 14 million pounds of food, so it was considerable,” Dykstra said.

“And then we also saw the LFPA, Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, go away, which helped local farmers and allowed us to purchase additional food directly from farmers.”

She said the state funding would go to several purposes.

“I look at this bill sort of as two programs, right? The local food purchase assistance program, we are working on the national level to bring that back. And so we’re hoping that if we get one-time funding that would help us get the program through two years, we could get that funding back on the federal level and bring that program back because we know it’s so important to our small farmers in South Dakota,” Dykstra said.

“So the additional dollars help purchase food, which will help us sort of replenish the bucket from how we recovered from the emergency that we’re in the last few years. So we were raising dollars to go out and build sustainability back after Covid, so building back up those small pantries in the small communities.

“But we quickly had to pivot those dollars to purchasing food because we lost so much food at the federal level. Our fundraising remains strong, but we can’t fundraise out of that hole. We know that we can sustain, but we need this one-time funding to help support us ongoing so that we can use our ongoing fundraising dollars to get back on track.”

Feeding South Dakota reported $32,579,773 in revenue and $32,969,060 in expenses on its 2024 IRS 990 report. Among the organization’s various services, it functions in part as a pass-through program, distributing about $7 million of food commodities from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which contracts with the South Dakota Department of Education. Feeding South Dakota serves as the state’s subcontractor.

“We have a great partnership with the Department of Education and the Department of Agriculture. And so we just hope to continue that partnership and help feed everyone in South Dakota,” Dykstra said.

“We feel like Feeding South Dakota is a great investment for our state,” she continued. “We run very efficiently. Less than 7 to 10 cents on the dollar is the overhead fees for South Dakota. And how we do that is because we work with volunteers across the state to help us run this amazing program.”