The Great Plains Food Bank works hard to provide food assistance to more than 144,000 individuals across North Dakota and Clay County, Minn., each year.
Everyone plays a role in providing food for our neighbors facing hunger. Because of the generous support received from food industry partners, financial donors and volunteers, the Great Plains Food Bank safely recovers and distributes food for more than 9.5 million meals annually to neighbors living with hunger who seek food assistance at our partner network of food pantries and meal sites, or through our wide range of direct service programs.
Here, we examine how this is all possible.
It all starts with the food donor
Around 67 percent of the more than 11 million pounds of food distributed each year by the Great Plains Food Bank is donated from grocery stores, retailers, manufacturers, growers and farmers. The remaining food is either purchased or supplied as part of government nutrition programs.
The Great Plains Food Bank rescues more than three million pounds of food a year that otherwise would go to waste from food industry partners throughout Fargo-Moorhead and Bismarck-Mandan. Additionally, farmers and growers statewide set aside plots of land and grow fresh produce to donate. We either pick up this product or it is dropped off at the Great Plains Food Bank.
The food is now within the walls of the Great Plains Food Bank’s statewide distribution center in Fargo or Bismarck regional service center, ready to be sorted and repacked.
![](https://www.greatplainsfoodbank.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GPFB_187_Image4-1024x1004.webp)
Volunteers and staff prep food for distribution
Most often, food and grocery products arrive at the Great Plains Food Bank in bulk and need to be repackaged into family-sized units. This is where our network of nearly 4,000 volunteers is crucial to the work of ending hunger.
Whether it is repacking donated potatoes or onions into five-pound bags to head out on a mobile food pantry route, filling a box of various food items for a partner food pantry or filling bags with a weekend’s worth of meals for children participating in our backpack program, Great Plains Food Bank volunteers provide more than 12,000 hours of service in a single year.
This work to provide food for the one in six people in North Dakota and Clay County, Minnesota facing hunger could not be accomplished without them.
Once food has been safely sorted and re-packaged, it is now ready for distribution to our neighbors experiencing food insecurity.
Partner food pantries and programs
Most food and grocery items reach children, older adults and families facing hunger through our network of 200 food pantries, meal sites and shelters. Each month, these partners order food and personal care items through our online portal. The Great Plains Food Bank fills those orders, then delivers them directly to our partners operating in nearly 120 communities.
In a single year, the Great Plains Food Bank provides, on average, 80 percent of all food that is distributed through our network of charitable feeding partners.
Additional food and grocery product reaches our neighbors facing hunger through a number of innovative direct service programs operated by the Great Plains Food Bank, such as our backpack, mobile food pantry, senior food pack, school pantry, and wellness pantry programs, each designed to fill a specific gap in the charitable food system.
The generous support from financial donors like you helps us distribute food for more than 9.5 million meals each year by allowing us to source nutritious food, transport product statewide through our fleet of trucks and ensure we maintain our facilities for exceptional food safety. Thank you!