Great Plains Food Bank purchasing locally grown, produced foods in partnership with the N.D. Department of Agriculture

Local Food Purchase Agreement provides local foods to neighbors in need

FARGO, N.D. – North Dakota growers, producers and processers are making an impact in the fight to end hunger for their neighbors in need thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Local Food Purchase Agreement (LFPA) program. Introduced in late 2022 in response to the impacts of COVID-19, the temporary program helps both North Dakota farmers, ranchers and producers along with the state’s food insecure individuals by allocating funds to the North Dakota Department of Agriculture who is teaming up with the Great Plains Food Bank to purchase foods grown and produced within the state. After purchased, the Great Plains Food Bank will distribute that local food to those in need across the state.

The LFPA grant provided $413,295 to the Great Plains Food Bank in 2022 that is currently being used to purchase local product. A second round of funding is expected later this year. Product purchased through the LFPA will be made available to the Great Plains Food Bank network of nearly 200 partner food pantries, shelters and soup kitchens across North Dakota.

“The LFPA opportunity comes at one of the more crucial times in our 40-year history as an organization,” Great Plains Food Bank CEO Melissa Sobolik said. “What makes this program even better is that it is a win-win for local ranchers, farmers, producers and our food-insecure neighbors. The need for food assistance increased by 14 percent last year while food donations dropped by 21 percent. This program is going to help thousands of children, seniors and adults struggling with hunger.”

The Great Plains Food Bank provided food assistance to more than 138,000 individuals in 2022. Meanwhile, the organization received 3 million fewer pounds of donated food than the year before.

“The LFPA grant program is a great opportunity to connect the Great Plains Food Bank with nearby producers and procure local food based on their needs,” says Doug Goehring, North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner. “In addition to providing food for underserved communities, the program will help create and expand economic opportunities for local and socially disadvantaged producers.”

Any North Dakota growers, ranchers or producers interested in participating in the program can fill out the form HERE. All approved product needs a retail license, and any protein must have a USDA inspection stamp. For additional information, contact Great Plains Food Bank Food Resource Manager Stephanie Erickson at 701-232-6219.

About the LFPA program
Authorized by the American Rescue Plan, the USDA has awarded funding through non-competitive cooperative agreements with state and tribal governments. Currently, 48 states, three territories, and 19 tribal governments have entered into cooperative agreements with LFPA program.

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About the Great Plains Food Bank
Opening in March of 1983, the Great Plains Food Bank is currently celebrating its 40th year as an organization. Serving as North Dakota’s only food bank, the Great Plains Food Bank partners with nearly 200 food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens and other charitable feeding programs operating in 100 communities across N.D. and Clay County, Minn. Through its array of innovative direct service programs and partner network, the Great Plains Food Bank has distributed more than 200 million meals to children, seniors, and families in need since 1983. The Great Plains Food Bank is a member of Feeding America, the nation’s food bank network, and was named the Not-for-Profit of the Year in 2018 by the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo Chamber of Commerce.

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Twitter: @NDFoodBank
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PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for Great Plains Food Bank regarding websites located at www.greatplainsfoodbank.org and give.greatplainsfoodbank.org. Great Plains Food Bank reserves the right, at any time and without notice, to change this Privacy Policy simply by posting such changes on our site. Any such change will be effective immediately upon posting. Great Plains Food Bank (“us”, “we”, “our”). Website visitor, guest, and/or donor (“you”, “user”).

Information Collection

  • Personal Information You Choose to Provide In the process of general correspondence, making a gift, or participating in online surveys you may be asked to supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number and other information. If you correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages, your email address, and our responses. 
  • Website Use Information Similar to most websites, our site may utilize “cookies” and web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered may include the date and time of visits, pages viewed, time spent on our website, and the sites visited just before and just after ours. This information is collected on an aggregate basis; none of this information is associated with you as an individual.

How Do We Use Information 

  • That You Provide to Us? We use personal information for purposes of administering our not-for-profit business activities, providing service and support, and making available other information and services to our website visitors, guests, agency partners, advocates, contracted consultants, and approved vendors. We may use the information provided to notify you about important changes to our website, new services, or new information that supports your interest in hunger-relief. 
  • Collected From Cookies? We use cookies and web server logs to gather information about our website users’ browsing activities. This information assists us in designing and continually improving our web pages in the most user-friendly manner. We do not use these technologies to capture any personally identifying information.

Security

  • How Do We Protect Your Information?
    • We utilize encryption/security software to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information we collect from unauthorized access or disclosure and accidental loss, alteration or destruction. 
    • Our operations and business practices are periodically reviewed for compliance with organization policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of our information. 
    • Our organization values ethical standards, policies and practices and is committed to the protection of user information. Our not-for-profit business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limits the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons, processes and transactions.
  • How Do We Secure Information Transmissions? All information transmitted through our website, giving pages, and forms are sent via secure, encrypted server. Other emails you send to us may not be secure; for that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as Social Security, credit card, or account numbers to us through an unsecured email.
  • Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties? We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information. We may provide aggregate information about our website visitors or website traffic patterns to our contracted affiliates or third parties; this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this privacy policy. Personal information such as email and address may be shared with a contracted third party for the use of email dissemination and direct mail marketing; all third party vendors are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
  • Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information? We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so, in other words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights.

Permission to Use of Materials 

  • The right to download and store or output the materials on our website is granted for personal use only, and materials may not be reproduced in any edited form. Any other reproduction, transmission, performance, display or editing of these materials by any means mechanical or electronic without our express written permission is strictly prohibited. Users wishing to obtain permission to reprint or reproduce any materials appearing on this site may contact us directly.

Your Access to and Control of Information 

  • You may request access to all of your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our donor constituent database, DonorPerfect. 
  • You may request removal from any communication including but not limited to emails, direct mail pieces, text and phone calls.
  • Because we do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information; opting out of such practices is optional and not required.

Contact Great Plains Food Bank/Opt-out

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, need to opt-out of future communications, or wish to exercise any other privacy right you may have by law, please contact us in any of the ways shown below.

Great Plains Food Bank
attn. Development Associate
1720 3rd Ave N
Fargo, ND 58102

Phone: 701-476-9120

Email: info@greatplainsfoodbank.org

All opt-out requests will be honored, but please be patient with us as it may take up to twelve (12) weeks for opt-out changes to be fully implemented. We may also occasionally initiate contact with opt-out supporters in order to update their contact preferences, and we will promptly accommodate their updated preferences, if any.

TERMS & CONDITIONS

DONATION REFUND POLICY

We are grateful for your donation and support of our organization. If you have made an error in making your donation or change your mind about contributing to our organization please contact us. Refunds are returned using the original method of payment. If you made your donation by credit card, your refund will be credited to that same credit card.

AUTOMATED RECURRING DONATION CANCELLATION

Ongoing support is important to enabling projects to continue their work, so we encourage donors to continue to contribute to projects over time. But if you must cancel your recurring donation, please notify us.